Resolve's Light
by My Wunderwaffle iz missin
Summary: Jackal pirates are attacking shipping traffic in UNSC space. The Blades have been hired to put an end to their attacks, but now find themselves drawn into a conspiracy involving a slave empire on a rebuilding colony world with resources beyond imagination. Countless lives are at stake and the Blades are their only hope. Blades Installment 2.
1. Prologue

**Covenant vessel **_**Seeker of Truth**_

**Fleet of Particular Justice preparing to depart Covenant Holy City **_**High Charity**_

**June 27, 2552**

A silent council had much to offer. From a swift condemning to a heretic to infinite praises of fortune and glory, it was nearly impossible to tell what the members' verdict became at the meeting hall. Dark lighting provided much of a sinister backdrop as the Covenant High Council considered Supreme Commander Thel Vadamee's proposal. The two sides of the long table inside had seated both members of the founding races of the Covenant. San Shyuum, or the prophets were responsible for the political state of their union of races. Prophets also had the roles of being preachers, scientists as well as developing new technologies. The words of a Prophet are enough to halt a charging Brute in its tracks.

At the second half of the large purple table with their attention focused more on the commander than their party at the other side, stood the mighty sangheili. With an average of eight and a half feet in height, the elites served as the muscle and backbone of the Covenant military. Thousands of years ago, the two races were interlocked into a bloody conflict before ensuring their survival by creating a union which evolved into the modern day Covenant Empire.

Vadamee glanced at the members of the high council seated in a semi circle at the table. He recognized several key members on both races. With a low humming sound from the gravity chairs, the three High Prophets were in the center with their distinct headdresses. He had interacted with all three prophets before on previous glorious missions against the humans. Truth, being the de facto leader of the Hierarchs had a holographic sheet in his hand and his brows furrowed as he scrolled through Thel's pre mission report. On the sangheili side, he recognized Field Master Corunlee and Councilor Soha Rolamee, who was accompanying one of his ships.

"The task seems like quite the challenge Supreme Commander." Truth began, looking to both sides for his support. "You say in here that this is a major human stronghold?"

"One of the largest." Vadamee responded, holding his head up high.

"Your fleet will be taking heavy losses, especially when you haven't had enough time to send in scouting teams." Field Master Corunlee noted. "If there's something of importance to the humans, then they'll have their more powerful weapons guarding it. No doubt big groups of demons."

"Tracking probes have located two human worlds. One was a fortress world called Reach, where I will be sending in _Long Night of Solace_ and a handful of corvettes. Rho Barutamee will have overall command of the group." Barutamee was the shipmaster of the _Long Night_, which was an excellent complement to Vadamee's fleet. The supercarrier would probably devastate the entire human world on its own. Accompanying the group was a research intelligence squad of Zealots led by Field Marshal Serykee. Both Barutamee and Serykee were passionately dedicated to the Journey and both bloodthirsty on their fields of battle. Vadamee had no doubt that Serykee would want to personally lead a massive overwhelming Covenant assault on the most fortified base that the humans had erected.

"You even plan to bring the Kig-Yar's cousins into this war?" Mercy inquired as he shared a skeptical glance with Truth.

"I think that the Skirmishers will serve well as recon units and shock soldiers."

Skirmishers were a more avian subspecies of Kig-Yar or jackals. They had more muscles in their legs than normal jackals, allowing them to be much stronger and faster. Vadamee hoped that the fairly new introduction of Skirmishers would be able to exhaust human forces enough for the main Covenant force to crush their fortress world. They had not been introduced to combat with humans yet, so their newer tactics would be a challenge. He would be even more impressed if they were capable of slaying demons. However for him to think of that, he still needed some trained soldiers. Thinking back to the kig-yar's indoctrination into the Covenant, originally, they were freelancers paid by the Covenant to do various dirty work. Since they've been with them for so long, a great number of them were accepted by the Covenant religion and became frontline soldiers. The jackals would become their scouts, recon troops and marksmen.

Truth sighed, rubbing his forehead. With a nod from both Hierarchs he regarded Vadamee with bulbous brown eyes. The gold armored elite felt on the spot of a judgment chamber from all three gazes of the highest ranking members of their Covenant.

"Our verdict agrees that you may introduce the kig-yar subspecies as a frontline soldier. You have only one week to prepare them for combat."

Vadamee's eyes widened, even his best instructors would not be able to train the troops that fast.

"Hierarch, I must protest the time. Our soldiers, even kig-yar are not able to be trained as well in just a week."

"Supreme Commander," Mercy's voice sharpened like a knife, "We are on a very tight schedule. The humans have our fleets spread thin. We are lucky that the blockade protecting _High Charity _has not been sent out to combat them. We don't even know what other places the humans have under their control. They could have double the fleet and colonies for all we know! As far, as I'm concerned, we've only scratched the surface of the sculpture."

Thel made to speak, but Truth saw his anticipation, holding up a hand to stop him and giving a polite nod as if to say wait his turn.

"The two worlds our intelligence has found reveal that they call the major stronghold of theirs Reach." Corunlee pressed a button on the table, bringing out a large hologram. The planet called Reach was green and brown with white wispy clouds and blue oceans dominating. Giant craterlike bays stretched for thousands of miles across. The Field Master looked around to make sure he had everyone's attention.

"Reach is home to a significant human population and a major port for their fleet. Unknown to our adversaries, we have actually known its location for some time, but thanks to a spy beacon attached to one of their ships, it confirms our theories of it being a human stronghold. Depending on Vadamee's strategy, if he manages to succeed, they will be severely weakened, most likely unable to recover from this loss. No doubt, there are significant human populations on the ground."

"Yes. But is he aware of the strategies?" Some San Shyuum asked from their side of the table.

"I am fully aware that this has a potential to be a complete defeat. To minimize a chance of it becoming such, I will be having the Fleet of Valiant Prudence, led by _Long Night of Solace_ to begin its invasion while scouting out the defenders and their most fortified positions. The intelligence gathering will be led by Serykee and his squad of Zealots to specific locations where we can probe the weakest human fortifications."

"It sounds like you have thought of this very thoroughly Supreme Commander." The tone in Truth's voice meant that he was simply eager to finish the meeting. Long political discussions with military personnel could often be unpleasant, combined with the smoking that some of the lesser Prophets powerful stench filling the cavernous room. Vadamee felt his throat go dry as the sticky foul smelling substance seemed to permeate his breathing through both his mouth and nose. "Very well, the kig-yar subspecies have been allowed to take part of this Reach crusade and because of schedule demands; we need your fleets to be underway within a week." His eyes went into a glare again, "This is nonnegotiable. May the gods protect you as you destroy the filthy humans."

* * *

**Liking it so far? Confused at what's going on? Trust me, all will be revealed in due time. Please review.  
**


	2. Wolf in Sheep's I

**Unknown location**

**August 1, 2558**

After seeing the distress beams that the jackal ship had sent out, the medium sized vessel changed its course and headed on a bearing towards them. The jackal ship _Secular_ found an open frequency channel and broadcasted his SOS signal, a single beep that was far from Morse code. Secular was a kig-yar merchant vessel with a crew of twenty five, all of them jackals. The avian race was known to be traders, bandits as well as a very dangerous opponent for humans when they were deployed as Covenant scouts and sharpshooters.

Blue flames trailed from the stern as the engines continued to run without coolant and other vital components. A second later the nearby ship connected on the channel.

"_Secular_, this is the captain of the _Stillaba_. We are responding to the distress call, what seems to be the problem?"

"This is Hys, shipmaster _Secular_." The skirmisher shipmaster spoke broken English with a heavy raspy accent that sounded like sandpaper grinding together. "Have bad engine, require new pieces. You let us aboard."

"What are the engine's symptoms?" Stillaba's captain asked.

"Do not know sim-tums word." Hys' tone hinted at slight impatience as the jackal glanced at another crewmember.

"What is wrong with the engine?"

"Overheat bad. Many parts gone and burnt."

"Okay, dock with our aft hatch. I will send my chief engineer and a team over to inspect and repair what we can."

"Thank you." Hys replied, "We no go back to our homeport because we must stay for trade."

"I understand." _Stillaba's _captain signed off. The jackals made preparations to dock. Secular was about one third the size of _Stabilla_ and the crew maneuvered her underneath the larger ship.

Hys had the _Secular _move towards the hatch that the captain instructed. With a solid clank, the _Secular _had moved at the same idle pace as the _Stillaba _before the hatches connected. Once it was in place, a couple jackal deckhands sealed the two ships together. The _Secular_ was much smaller and was below the _Stillaba_, allowing Hys to give it a good long look. It was definitely a ship that was either quite rare, or he had never seen it before. Old hull plating had paint that looked as if it were to flake off caked the sides, meaning she was years past of needing a new coat. What was once a hangar for smaller ships was now a place to hoard large storage boxes with just as much rust and chipped paint. No doubt, this ship was nearing the end of her life. He guessed there were about thirty personnel onboard, deckhands, engineering and main crew. He left the bridge with three other skirmishers to greet the engineering team. He was relieved when he saw no noticeable weapons on the hull.

As soon as the hatch turned and opened, Hys recoiled from the dank smell emanating from the holds. The _Stillaba_'s walls were bare, save for the floor that left visible footprints from the three men that Hys guessed were the engineering crew. The chief engineer seemed to be a middle aged man with two others, one larger with a darker skin carrying a datapad and the other wearing glasses and with a handheld box filled with bizarre tools. In the background lights flickered at different rhythms, casting shadows that danced as if they were actual specters.

Hys wondered if the vessel was even able to help them. The ship seemed to barely maintain its own functions.

"I'm chief engineer Davis and these are my aides, Farhan and Duane." The leader greeted, holding out his hand, but recalling it after a second. Hys smirked, an expression indistinguishable to humans. "Alright, show us the engine room." He gestured back to the decks of _Secular_. Hys complied, leading the three humans back. The three accompanying kig-yar watched as they passed by. One of them nodded to his comrades while watching the three humans.

Before they could register what had happened, Davis had a butt of a rifle slammed into the side of his head. Just as quickly and surprising, the other two engineers had met similar fates.

"Pirates!" Duane had managed to identify the occupants of the _Secular_ before he found himself gagged by a rag. Farhan and Davis were both gagged as well. The ship wasn't as promising as they hoped, but the pirates were not going to let this grand opportunity pass.

"Do as you are told and nobody will be hurt." Hys snarled concealing no effort to make his voice accented, taking the Type-31 rifle from his comrade. The needler rifle was among the most feared in the Covenant arsenal. Firing similar rounds to the common needler, all it took was a single shot to the head to finish just about anybody, even an armored Spartan. Even if the shots missed the head, it was still dangerous from getting hit with multiple pink crystalline rounds because they would combine and explode, killing the unfortunate victim in a horrible way.

Pirates, especially jackal ones, were common near busy shipping lanes. They would often capture a ship, usually a commercial freighter in a similar manner they had done to the _Stillaba_ and would then contact the company for ransom. Piracy was a huge matter ever since travel was ever theorized, with jackals probably looting rival ships before humanity first discovered fire.

Hys turned to another dozen of his men, all armed with plasma and needle weapons. "Fall in line and get ready to contact whoever owns the ship."

Hys needed all crew members alive if they wanted to make a profitable ransom, when it was possible. So far, the ships they have attacked had maybe one or two security onboard, which was quickly dealt with. Their prey was mostly human ships belonging to the main governing body, but would occasionally go after some of the freighters belonging to the splinter groups that opposed them. He pointed the rifle at Davis. "You are to use your personal com device to tell your crew to assemble inside the mess hall. Everybody must be there. We kill anybody caught wandering around."

Davis remained still, defiance flickering in his eyes. It was inevitable, as he accepted defeat and spoke into his comlink that was closely monitored by one of Hys men. The message seemed satisfactory to him. He then escorted him to the bridge with the two other engineers moved to the galley. The control room was just as bad as her decks. The walls and floor seemed like they had not seen repairs since the ship was first christened. The controls had worn buttons that had barely recognizable labels. Dust bunnies the size of golf balls sat in the corners. A lifelong living in poverty had hardened Hys, yet he was disgusted.

"How did it go with the merchants?" A younger man asked. Unlike standard ship uniform, he wore overalls and a striped long sleeved shirt overhead. Upon looking up at the chief engineer with a rifle pressed in the back of his head, his eyes widened in terror.

"No heroics." Davis warned. "They promised not to hurt me as long as everyone is gathered in the galley and offers no resistance."

"Yes sir."

"I demand to see your captain." Hys urged on.

"Our captain is dead."

"I find that hard to believe human. Your captain spoke to me."

"Then he would probably be in the galley."

To Hys, the money was all that mattered. Like his fellow skirmishers, he still harbored a deep hatred for humanity from wiping out nearly the entire skirmisher subspecies during Reach in 2552. He had served in the military and deserted the Covenant during the final stages of the war to avoid the vengeful Sangheili. He now found himself employed as the leader of a pirate group that made horror stories of hijackings a reality.

He was directed by another pirate to the galley, where the eighteen others were herded without a fight. Trying his best to look menacing, he found a table to stand on where he was above them. One of the crew members held a bloody rag to the back of his head, no doubt having done or said something that pissed off the skirmishers.

"What's going on?" One of them asked.

"What does it look like dumbass? We've been hijacked by pirates."

"Silence!" Hys snarled, his feathers fanning out in an aggressive expression. The two arguing crewmates instantly blanched, more scared of their weapons than his startling voice.

"You are now under control of Hys and his pirate cell. As much as I want to put a needle in the back of all your heads, I am holding that thought. Your company, Galactic Shipping Enterprises will probably pay a handsome price for your safe return. Therefore, you do as we comply and nobody will be hurt. Anyone attempting to resist us will be shot and ejected into space. Anyone who tries to call for help will be killed and my men will slaughter the crew."

"We will follow your orders." Davis lowered his head down in resignation. "We all want to see our families again."

"That is quite intelligent human." Hys spat the final word with a hack of saliva on the floor. "We will be in touch with Galactic to negotiate your release."

Three of the skirmishers had gone into the back to the kitchen to gather what could have possibly been used as a weapon. Merchant ships like the _Stillaba_ had a kitchen that was small and not the cleanest, but sufficient to say the least. One of them dragged a bag out full of knives, cleavers, forks and even the soup pot.

"These guys know what they're doing." Duane muttered to the crewman next to him. "I would have gone for a knife once they'd let their guard off." He hadn't realized that two skirmishers were right behind him.

Duane found himself slammed into the ground from the needle rifle's butt. The pirate raised his rifle and bashed repeatedly as the crewman was helpless to defend himself.

"Hey!" Farhan shouted, "That's enough."

"Stop!" Hys snarled, grabbing the rifle from his fellow pirate. Both subordinates backed away as Hys grabbed Duane by the chin and looked him in the eye. He was clearly uncomfortable and showed traces of fear, which the skirmisher took much delight in. "Talk again and you die."

Hys regarded the chief engineer, "Show me the captain's office."

Davis complied, standing slowly to his feet under the skirmisher leader's watchful eye moving in front with Hys and his two henchmen behind him.

"Is that really necessary?" the engineer brushed off the plasma pistol that was pressed into his back. Hys clicked his tongue at the other and the skirmisher named Lok rolled his eyes, but tucked the sidearm away by a square container attached to his belt with a greenish liquid inside. Hys had reminded him about his drinking, but somehow he was unable to shake off his habit.

The pirates had been ambitious in nabbing ships lately. At first, when the war had broke out, they had started out with simple raids from boarding parties taking whatever they could. Now there were entire ships being captured, with their cargo being sold on the underground market and the crew ransomed, abandoned or executed, most likely the latter two. Eventually the size of their prey grew. The ships captured were often smaller commuter ships or merchant ones. Now larger freighters were being held with the biggest story of a human cruise liner having been held hostage for two weeks before the pirates negotiated a ransom with an ODST rescue team that ended without a shot fired. Recently, a skirmisher warlord had been putting a tight grip on other kig-yar pirates in the region until every bandit pledged their loyalty to him alone.

His name was Prith and he'd been a major commander for his skirmisher troops during the Battle of Reach before commandeering a phantom and escaping the doomed planet. Securing himself a place in kig-yar piracy, he managed to evade both UNSC and Covenant radar by plundering resources that was lightly guarded. Prith himself had personally spearheaded a charge into Reach's city Quezon, using a Beam Rifle and afterwards over twenty kills to his credit. He then injured a handful of human civilians and hauled them to his controlled area for him and his fellow kig-yar to hunt down for sport.

After the war, neither side had resources to hunt Prith down, thus their ignorance allowed him to span his influence. It was with his arrival that pirates under his command were held until a ransom was paid. If it was not met after a week, he often killed them on the spot. It was rumored that he wore adorned armor of his former competitor's bones and a necklace of the human victims' precious metals and stones he had personally killed.

The ship's office was even more in sad shape than the rest of the it. A desk was in the center covered in so many papers and decorations that it was hard to tell if it was even an office. On the bare walls were portraits of poorly drawn trees and oceans. A bed with ruffled and stained sheets was in the corner.

"Give me the override to your self-destruct sequence."

"You can't!" Davis protested.

"I can do what I want, since this is now my ship. Now give me the code."

"Only the captain can give you that and he's not here."

"Who's the captain? Describe him for me."

Davis sighed and gave the best explanation of what the captain looked like. Hys looked at Lok and the other skirmisher named Tig relaying the human's instructions and they nodded, heading back to the mess hall.

They had posted three more guards with plasma pistols and needle rifles at the only mess hall entrance. After stating what Hys wanted, the five of them opened the door, gasping at what they saw.

The mess hall was empty.

* * *

**The crew is very sneaky! Next chapter might explain things a bit. Hope you all are enjoying it so far!**


	3. Wolf in Sheep's II

_**Stabilla**_

**Unknown location**

**August 1, 2558**

Lok had just stepped inside the mess hall, now absent of the captured crew when he felt a presence behind him. All the other pirates were in front, still confused at the disappearance. Lok raised his plasma pistol and held down the trigger. An orb of green plasma charged at the twin prongs at the front of the gun. He released the trigger, letting it fly down the hallway. Had the crew not disappeared so suddenly, he would have calmly investigated, but the vanishing sent uncontrollable electric chills up his body. It was not a very pleasant to him having the rare experience of feeling fearful. The bolt illuminated as it passed the walls, showing there was nobody and it dispersed at the end wall.

"What is it?" Tig demanded, rushing to Lok's side.

"I..I thought I saw someone." He couldn't help but stammer. Tig recoiled when Lok's intoxicated breath hit his nostrils.

He turned back to the guards. "Stay here, lock the doors and make sure nobody gets in or out until we get back. Lok and I are going to tell Hys what has happened."

All three guards nodded, shutting and locking the doors before putting their backs to it and weapons at alert. The skirmisher pirate leader had heard the pistol's discharge and rushed over, meeting Tig halfway.

"What the hell is going on?" He demanded.

"The mess hall is empty and Lok said that he saw someone in the halls!"

"What do you mean the mess is empty?"

"Not even the guards posted had opened the door. I'm just as confused as you are."

Both skirmishers met Lok and the guards. The door was locked, but Hys took his plasma pistol and shot the lock, causing it to melt right off onto the floor where it split apart into burned pieces. He flung the doors open to the mess hall.

Sitting there were all eighteen, plus Davis right where he had directed them. A few looked anxious looks on their faces.

"What was the shooting about?" The engineer asked. Hys did not respond. He turned to Lok with the angered look of an enraged jiralhanae chieftain regarding unggoy cooks about his meal. Hys grabbed the lesser skirmisher and slammed him into the wall, making sure the pressure he kept on his neck was painful but not lethal.

"Are you an idiot? You're so intoxicated right now that you can't even think straight!" He raised his other hand and slapped him across the face, sending a sticky fluid splattering on the wall.

"Hys, they were really gone! I swear!"

"I catch you drinking during a raid again and I will personally stick needles in your eyes and jettison you out into space. Understand?"

"I do."

Hys released him, snarling to himself as the drunken skirmisher gasped for breath. "Now go find the others before they shoot up what's salvageable on this rust bucket."

Lok scampered down the hallway, eager to escape his superior's wrath. Hys sighed, peering into a nearby crack in the ceiling, wondering how a ship could rot so badly and maybe if phantoms did inhabit its decks. He noticed his feathers standing on end and his finger tightening around his needle rifle's trigger.

"Lok's going to have me chasing shadows next time." He muttered to himself.

* * *

A deck below the mess hall was a room that the skirmisher pirates wouldn't have believe existed on such a derelict ship.

"Boo." Commander Trip Aegis smiled at the nervous skirmisher that the crew had identified as the leader of the bandits. He leaned back in his chair, one that stood in the center of the low-ceiling room among a semicircle of panels. Being the brains of the ship, it had the more vital stations to the center, weapons and helm while the other stations spread out. Aegis' command chair had an unobstructed view of all the bridge functions and could transfer control to the computer that was currently folded on his right side.

He had masculine features, with a strong jaw, piercing black eyes and short black hair. However there was much more to him than what met the eye. Sure it was enough to melt most women's hearts and make most men's ache with jealousy, but Aegis' service to both the UNSC and ONI was not what set him apart from their everyday infantrymen. He did not have the toughness of a fifty year UNSC veteran, although serving many battles. Nor did he have the flawless record of any ONI assassin. Instead, his aura emanated as a man who knew what he wanted out of life and made sure that he got it every day.

"You should have called off the que." Leah Roush sat in her station, as executive officer. "What if the overgrown turkeys returned when the secret door was open?"

"Then I'd be thinking of Plan B and retake the ship."

"What's Plan B?"

Trip shook his head, grinning slightly. "When I know what it is I'll tell you."

When Hys and his groups had left, the crew decided to set their nerves on edge. In reality, the crew simply moved out of sight through a back door hidden in the mess hall and holotanks displayed the tables and everything in the mess hall as if they had left without so much as a farewell note.

Like the crew, the_ Stillaba_ was not what she had seemed; in fact it wasn't her real name. With magnetic print, the crew had rearranged _Stillaba _from its original name _Ballista_. Built as a highly secretive ONI stealth frigate, she was quickly retired and bought by Aegis when he started his private contractor, the Blades. Despite the tension the pirates had to the crew, Aegis and everyone else, even the crew remained at the utmost calm.

Their operation was one of the most carefully planned in their short history, the most critical moment being the pirates coming aboard. The fact was that the pirates felt that they had everyone under their control, in reality; the crew had every single pirate under observation the whole time. Because they were unpredictable, nobody could tell from a distance of what they intended. The skirmishers would likely have turned tail and run if they found out that further in the hallway where Davis and his two engineers came from were a couple of ODSTs in separate sections that were nearly invisible in the flickering lights holding SRS-99 S5 series sniper rifles with all one and a half dozen pirates in their sights. During the skirmisher's time on the ship there were cameras that had angles into every corridor and room of the ship, making them observed at all times. Wherever they went, they were shadowed by at least two members of the Blades' sangheili division in active camo, ready to react in any situation.

_Ballista_ was really two ships in one. On the outside, she appeared deserted or neglected that was due for the breaker yards any day. Her disgusting outside and inside were merely a façade for visitors, most recently the skirmisher pirates aboard. The weathering on the hull was applied paint, all the walls inside had peelable coating to make them look worn and the pirate manning the "bridge" actually had no control over the ship. A computer recorded the actions of the lone skirmisher manning the navigation and sent the signals to the helm station in the _Ballista_'s ops center. The officer manning the helm would then make adjustments as necessary. Inside the hangar, where the skirmisher thought were shipments of precious resources were a trio of dropships disguised as locked containers. Two of them heavily modified pelicans and the third a Type 52 phantom. The ship's arsenal of weapons including the latest version of the MAC, multiple pods of missiles, a few miniguns and antiair batteries gave the _Ballista_ as much firepower as a UNSC heavy destroyer. Her shields and armor could protect her from multiple barrages of plasma fire.

As for the crew accommodation, no expense had been spared. Every member had their room decorated to their liking and her interior was as luxurious as any four star hotel. Aegis knew the men and women aboard were risking their lives every day, so they might as well be as comfortable as possible.

"Now that the pirates believe that they have total control over the ship, we're now ready to move to Prith's territory."

"Hopefully there's enough shipment of explosives to invite him onboard." Leah brushed a few strands of her chocolate brown hair out of her pretty face.

"All weapons and countermeasures are green and ready to fire at a moment's notice." Weapons officer Luke Riley gave a thumbs up from his station. Dressed like an outcast with a shirt saying "I'm with stupid" and an arrow pointing to his right, he had the look of someone socially awkward. Aegis had groaned on multiple occasions when walking past his cabin and hearing horrible noises that Riley called music.

Their mission was a little out of the unusual. Most of the time, they had worked for the UNSC and its UEG allies. This time, after a difficult research into their client, they were helping the Office of Naval Intelligence bring skirmisher pirate lord Prith to justice. They were instructed to get Prith out of his territory without having any UNSC influence in the heist. With that info, Aegis and the Blades had already come up with the audacious plan in twenty four hours when everyone else would still be scratching their head for weeks.

The pirate at the helm fired the engines of the _Ballista _and the two connected ships both activated their slipspace drives. Normally having a slipspace jump with two attached ships was risky, but many successful attempts have been done in the past.

"Now will you guys be joining me for dinner?" Aegis stood up as the helmsman in the operations center set the navigation computer to what the pirate had calculated. "I heard the kitchen is preparing a very good baked macaroni and cheese."

* * *

The joined vessels exited slipspace two hours later, moving in parallel with each other. Hys had taken the controls, maneuvering the ships near what appeared to be a cluster of four larger ships with other structures connected by sealed gravity lifts. All of the larger ships were UEG freighters. Aegis recognized one of them, it having disappeared a month ago. The area had multiple fields where the ship could dock, yet Hys was having difficulty moving the ships. Of course, Aegis could have his helmsman Daniel Tyler perform the actions, but unfortunately he was trapped in the mess hall still playing the role of engineer Duane. Yet even in that circumstance, he did not want anyone else but himself in control of his ship, especially in a very sticky situation.

Hys had called for a full reverse, but Aegis ignored the commands from the computer and hit the accelerator thrusters. On the makeshift bridge, Hys and the helmsman shared a perplexed look before the former took the computer back, still under the belief that he had control. The ship finally entered the barrier, to the cheers of hundreds of skirmishers waiting on the platform. Male pirates holding their rifles and pistols in triumph over their heads and women surrounded by at least three or four children. Right in the center, with red armored skirmishers flanking his side was Prith.

He looked just like any other skirmisher, avian with black feathers, although not as imposing as his posse beside him. Aegis noticed bracelets and piercings that had been from precious metals, most likely victims he had previously killed. The armor he donned was quite elaborate, with gold arm and leg plating. His emotion was nonexistent and it remained whenever killing an innocent victim or regarding one of his numerous children.

Hys had their ship detach from the _Ballista_ as he maneuvered it to a series of docking clamps. The pirate was not very good at maneuvering ships, so Aegis did it for him and made sure that the clamp was secure before powering down the engines in pulses, as if they had malfunctioned. Pirates extended bridges to the hatch.

"There's our target." Operations director Vasili Survorov pointed at the screen, it wasn't that hard to tell.

"The one with the chicken beaks on his neck?" Leah asked, normally this would have come from the absent Drew Rayson who was currently engineer Davis.

"Yeah him." Trip finished. His plan for capture was simple, once Prith had stepped aboard the ship, he was considered out of his territory. The Blades would then seal off any possible access to any more of his cronies and grab him easily.

However in the next few seconds, he watched his plans fall apart.

Prith had halted at the top before turning to his followers, hands raised in a preaching stance. He uttered a few words in his alien mouth. The rally then caused dozens of skirmishers to rush towards the opening all shouting and cackling like hyenas.

* * *

**That last part's definitely a hitch in the Blades' plan! Will they still be able to pull this caper off?**


	4. Wolf in Sheep's III

"Commander!" Luke cried out as the swarm came closer to the ship.

Trip's hand balled into a fist. "I see it. Head to Plan B." Prith was nearly at the entrance of the ship, but now more than thirty skirmishers were already aboard and another two dozen on their way.

"Yes sir." Riley tapped another button on the console. _Ballista_ and her compliment carried enough firepower to kill every single pirate four times over, however no matter how grim it was, there were lines that Aegis and his crew never dared to venture past. The men with their rifles would be tricky being targets, as there were women and children onboard as well.

The door to the ops center opened and Dan Tyler rushed in, still in the costume as engineer Duane. He muttered his apologies before clanking fists with Ril. The two were best friends and inseparable. Tyler had never really gotten over being a studious geek ever since he left high school with an IQ of 168. Joining the navy for four years in the academy and four years at the HQ on Reach hadn't really changed much about him.

On the other hand, Luke Riley's thuglike style was something he couldn't quite get into sync. A certified genius, he had been a naval developer for improved versions of the MAC. They had met during a conference in late 2550 when he presented the newest version that he had headed.

Even though both were just about as opposite as you could get, they worked in perfect synchronization with the power to anticipate Aegis as if they could read his mind.

"Prepare sonic suppression systems. Don't start until I give the order."

"Yes Commander."

The new sonic suppression systems were a newly developed countermeasure by UNSC warships to ward off jackal and skirmisher pirates. Similar to ones used since the 21st century, the sonic suppression released a high pitched sound that was inaudible to humans, but not to kig-yar.

"Leah, I want you to monitor Prith. Keep him in your sight at all times and inform me of his activities. Tell me the minute he enters the storage."

"You got it." Like Ty and Ril, Leah Roush had also come from the navy having served as an intelligence officer. Her figure was much more petite and her voice had a higher pitch, but she was as excellent at combat and naval planning as any of her masculine shipmates.

"Pyra, Suvorov, meet me in the armory."

"Roger that." Both men had started their way down. Vasili was right behind Aegis since he was also at the bridge. The armory was located right underneath where pirates were located and they heard their clawed footfalls as they sprinted into the large room. Inside was almost every imaginable weapon from simple handguns to N6 Spartan Lasers. Also in the corner were three rings surrounded with robotic arms. This was the MJOLNIR armor assembly rings. Within thirty seconds, their latest MJOLNIR GEN2 armor would be combat ready. Both he and Vasili suited up at the same time. Aegis's armor was dark red and black. Suvorov had a green and white colored armor. As they walked out, they were greeted by Pyra, who was already in his own completely black armor.

"Prith is about a minute from the main hold." Leah updated.

"Anybody on the bridge?"

"There's a couple of little chickens tampering with the weapons controls."

"Then let's give them something to play with. Weapons, activate the sonic suppression system and pipe I through the speakers where the pirates are located."

The pirates heading to the main hold were the closest to the origin of the SSS when Riley turned it on. Inside, the new unbearable sound was an assault on all of their senses. Many squawked in pain and covering their ears did little to dampen any noise.

"Yeah now they're going to have a hearing problem." Luke chuckled back at control.

"Commander, Prith had just ordered one of his bodyguards to check the bridge. Those kids are gonna be in trouble. Vaal is standing by to take him out."

"I don't pity them." Aegis replied as he reached the Covenant section of the armory. Although mostly UNSC made weapons were used in their operations, they kept Covenant ones for undercover. He selected a needle rifle with a plasma rifle sidearm and was satisfied that the other two chose carbines with needlers. Vaal Talam was the leader of the sangheili side of the Blades. Bringing several loyal Covenant warriors gave the Blades versatility on tackling both human and Covenant problems alike.

"Prith is now outside the hold with the pelicans and phantom. There are about ten other armed skirmishers with him. Speaking of which, our lead visitor, Hys is now grinning from ear to ear about his find and looks hopeful for praise."

Trip smirked from Leah's last comment, "Not for long." The team started down the lavish hallway until stopping in front of a hung carpet. Aegis pressed his hand against it and the scanner on the other side verified his armor print. The door opened to reveal a utility closet. He brushed aside the various clothing on the racks as the door shut, nearly indistinguishable from anyone else. This was one of the many transitions between the disguise and actual _Ballista_. He opened the door and recoiled from the sight that he saw.

Skirmishers were everywhere, on the walls, howling, partying, drinking, one of them, Aegis guessed was an unmated male, was trying to hit on one of the females and it looked as if she was captivated. He shrugged it off, insisting that all kig-yar were just about as ugly as they come, children or adult, male or female.

"Sitrep on Prith's location?"

"He's inspecting the container with the phantom."

"His mood?"

"Kid at an amusement park."

It was the time. Aegis used Pyra's larger bulk to conceal himself as he talked, "Okay, tell Drew if he's back to get the burnt plastic and smoke ready for deployment in the hangar hold. Remember, we want pirates getting off, not on."

Occasionally, smoke was indicated from the _Ballista_ that she was heavily damaged. In a way, it drew suspicion away from the fact that they were capable of doing anything that was harmful. The smell of burnt plastic was what Hys had smelled on his first time stepping aboard and the smoke the she displayed of feigning damage was now being redirected into the hangar.

Within seconds, the noxious gas flooded the cargo holds. It wasn't long before the skirmisher's rejoicing of their loot turned into a frenzy to escape the ship. Since they brought no helmets to filter out the nonlethal scent, their only option was to get off the ship as soon as possible.

The three Spartans stepped out and sprayed fire into the hold, making sure that no unarmed pirates were hit. Instantly, combined with the fact of toxic air and automatic fire, the crowd suddenly became a mass exodus.

Aegis and Pyra waved their hands, causing two of the sangheili also hidden and observing to shut off the lights. Without the largest visual aid, the pirates would be even more dazed and probably scared out of their minds.

The three Spartans switched on their VISRs, a special night vision that could depict armed pirates in red and noncombatants in yellow. Their target was highlighted in purple with a plasma pistol in hand.

Like wraiths, the Spartans and hidden elites armed with carbines opened fire upon the crowd, making sure they only fired at armed pirates. A few returned fire, but no rounds had even hit the shielded operatives. They had already vanished before their targets even knew that they were shooting back.

Aegis silently slipped away from the others, working along the back wall of the fight. Of course, Prith was firing at the origin of a carbine shot. One of his shots must have gotten lucky because the bolt impacted right where one of the cloaked elites were. He was far enough away to keep Trip from identifying who exactly he was. A few more pirates fired their needle rifles at where he had been seen. Unorganized, they had missed their window as the elite's camo regenerated and he faded from view, moving out of sight so that their shots hit the back wall.

Trip put away his rifle and removed a small pistol that he had to use a little bit of effort to work his gloved hands through the grip. The handgun fired a quick tranquilizer dart that could incapacitate a fully grown man within seconds. A skirmisher took even less. Beside Prith, there was also Hys, the leader of the original boarding party as well as two of his men.

Back inside the ops center, Dan was watching as the unarmed skirmishers had dashed back into their hideout, biding his time until Leah confirmed that only armed pirates were aboard, he pressed another button making clangs resonate throughout the hull. The doors, hatches and windows immediately became inescapable as the blast doors sealed shut. The team with their vision could be stealthily moveable, while the pirates might as well have been blind. The team inside the hangar's hold could hear the skirmisher thugs talking to each other, but easily saw that nobody dared to move where they stood.

Aegis aimed at the closest pirate and fired, the pistol making no more noise than a whisper. The skirmisher squawked out loud as he fumbled for something in his belt before the drug finally claimed his consciousness and he collapsed like deadweight.

"Six left, but there's another situation outside." Leah set markers on the last targets, although Trip and the others didn't need them.

"Talk to me."

"One of the men that had fled the ship is rallying another twenty to board. They're also bringing online a few antiaircraft plasma turrets situated on the nearest ship.

"Have Luke spool up the Death Machine and turn the turrets into scrap metal. Get Dan to start the engines and pull us away."

Even though he couldn't see them, he knew both men were grinning as they went to their tasks. The _Ballista_'s engines fired up as she made ready to depart the pirate's hideout. Further along the hull, a piece of armor plating was withdrawn and a large four barreled minigun slammed out. A high pitched shriek pierced the air as Riley aimed above most of their heads at the turrets. The emplacements were hit with thousands of armor piercing rounds in a second and went up in flames, spraying blue flaming debris everywhere. Most of the pirates that had been hosed by the fire had survived and dove flat on the ground before hitting back. Unfortunately the hull simply shrugged off their needle rounds, being about as effective as trying to halt a charging hunter with a slingshot. Next to him, the ship's engines had reached her nominal engine capacity. With a little help from Riley hosing the docking controls with the Death Machine, the _Ballista_ popped free of her cradle. Still under invulnerable fire from the pirates, she peeled free and began accelerating away from the hideout, unchallenged.

Back inside the hold, Hys' man Lok had gone completely wild.

"There are devils possessing the entity of this ship!" He fired his weapon wildly, the bolts doing little to help illuminate the dark room or help their moods. Hys had now believed his teammate's suspicions; this was no helpless ship. It was much too late for him.

"We've got to get out of here!" One of the other pirates exclaimed, rushing out into open space.

That was the last words he had uttered before a carbine round tore through the side of his head, exploding his cranium into a purple mess.

Pyra had materialized out of the other side of one of the containers and he gave Aegis a nod. Both men stepped out with the latter closing the gap between him and Prith in less than two seconds. He swiftly wrapped his arm around the pirate leader, jamming the dart gun in his neck and pulled the trigger. Shrugging off Prith's struggling, he stiff armed him to speed up the process. Prith finally flailed weakly before going limp.

Hys had suddenly realized the larger presence beside him with his leader uncounscious in the armored giant's hands when he felt something red hot pass through his stomach. Turning around, he saw the Spartan aim his rifle again and fire, this time Hys' body flopped onto the floor, minus his head.

The other skirmishers aimed their weapons in the confusion, but after a repeat of carbine and bullet shots, they all collapsed to the floor at nearly the same time. Lok found himself staring down an angry looking sangheili before having his head parting his body from the energy sword.

"Clear!" Pyr called from his position.

"All enemies have been vanquished." One of the cloaked sangheili, the one to run Lok though with his sword deactivated his cover. Although Rak was more of a sniper and an artist with the carbine and beam rifles, he was also quite proficient with the blade as well.

"Now that that's over," Aegis hefted the pirate leader up, "Tell Dan to get us the hell out of here."

* * *

**Was that epic or what?! Even though they've nabbed their target, they still have to get him back to their clients! And what if they have more for the Blades than what they expect?  
**


	5. In the Shadows I

**Rinzon Academy of Science ship **_**Knowledge Hunter**_

**Unknown location**

**August 1, 2558**

No sooner had Meredith Adrian fallen asleep in her cabin when she was awoken by a scream and the staccato rattling of gunfire.

The_ Knowledge Hunter_ was one of the expedition ships that took students from the Rinzon Academy of Science onto a voyage for multiple fields of work for students enrolled. All of those on the voyage were reminded that some areas the ship would venture into were dangerous from bandits of kig-yar and their skirmisher subspecies, with five ships vanishing within the last couple of months. To help prevent the frequency of an attack, the ship's arms locker held a shotgun and some pistols. However, that was next to nothing going up against anything from full auto rifles to plasma weapons that pirates often got from Covenant suppliers.

Adrian was one of the six females out of the _Hunter_'s crew of fifty and most of the students were an entire decade younger than her. Even though she was not one of the students or instructors, she was vital especially in the lab operations that the classes relied on. Since her male roommate was sick before the ship even left her homeport on Flint, she had the entire cabin to herself and she kept her room tidy for frequent visitors.

At thirty seven years old, she had been the twin sister of a brother who met an early death in a surprise attack against Covenant forces. Adrian stood roughly five feet and eleven inches tall. She had light brown hair that went down to her shoulders and deep blue eyes that could mesmerize anyone if stared long enough into. Her body was lean, athletic and curvy, more than enough to catch some guy's wandering gazes especially during her twenties.

More gunfire erupted in the hallway just outside of her cabin. With fight or flight instincts kicking in, she rushed to the bottom of her bed. In a flurry of motion, she tore the clothes out of her bags and stuffed them underneath the bed. She also gathered the sheets and blankets from her own bed as well. Wedging herself in between, the gunfire grew closer until the climax point, where her cabin door was thrown open and the attackers entered, rifles drawn. The form was easily known to her, with thruster packs on the back, these were jackals, one of the most feared types of pirates. More than once, has she heard of a horrifying story of a jackal bandit encounter. At first, they were raiding small ships for valuable goods. Now they had been reported seizing entire freighters and holding crews hostage for ransom. The concept for this type of piracy has been in use since voyaging across Earth's oceans when made possible.

The pirate was clad in an airtight suit and he moved in an almost primal style. It was making a lower pitch growl in its language, likely to its superior. Instead of a jackal, this was a skirmisher. Still ugly as ever, instead of a mixture of clothing, he wore a white uniform underneath patches of bulky armor that enhanced his senses. The domed helmet was blinking as the visible HUD scanned the surroundings. She prayed that it didn't have any heat seeking capabilities.

There was a strange symbol on the weapon that he carried. With money flowing from ransoms and raids, it meant that these pirates were organized and actually branded themselves with a name and an emblem. He was checking the covers of the other bunk and when unsatisfied, moved into the bathroom. Her mind was moving at a thousand miles an hour and she was attempting to breathe at the quietest volume possible. She heard the pirate open the shower curtains and growl in frustration before walking out, likely assured that it was vacant.

The gunfire had ceased after a few minutes, but the screams started again. Another sickening sound, flesh being ripped from a body was moments later. She felt something warm being forced up her mouth and swallowed hard, forcing the bile back down.

Waiting for another hour of silence felt like eternity for her. She crawled out of her hiding place, knowing that the pirates were still going to do something to hide their evidence of any raid at all. Her answer had come almost immediately as a loud roar came from the halls. Adrian looked down to see cold water from the ship's water tank lapping at her feet. It was extremely cold and had some ice drifting around.

Her adrenaline spiked again, the pirates had let the cryo pods open, setting the entire ship into a frozen waste. Sprinting out and keeping her balance in the wetness, she paused at the hall's door, putting her ear to the threshold for any noise. It was all silent except for the whooshing sound of flowing water. The power to the _Hunter_ was out, so she twisted the emergency hatch. It was shut tightly, too tight for anything to be done about it.

She strained again until black spots began swimming in her vision before collapsing, all hopes of escaping vanished. Hell, even if she was able to get off, it wouldn't be long before she was back in the pirate's clutches.

What Meredith Adrian didn't know was that the _Hunter_ was well deep into uncharted territory by either UNSC or Covenant. The vessel that had once been the pride of the Rinzon Academy was now a former shadow of herself, far from any hope of salvation.

* * *

**Wow, organized pirates?! Could they be connected to Prith's op? Or is something even darker going on in the shadows?**


	6. In the Shadows II

**Chateau Renaud**

**Outskirts of the city of Verona Beach**

**New Corsica, Ensee System**

**August 1, 2558**

Chateau Renaud sat at the edges of the continent of Eiden, bordering the snow tipped peaks of the Lom Mountain range to the west and the metropolitan sprawl of the rapidly growing city of Verona Beach. Situated at the southern hemisphere of the colony, Eiden was the largest continent of New Corsica, however the most remote. Sprawling forests, vast fields and the largest borders with the ocean make it an ideal place for civilians, military and politicians to find solace away from the quick paced lifestyle back at their homes. Surrounded by a gate that enclosed nearly 2 square miles of private property, the chateau Renaud's exterior looked much more futuristic compared to the earlier stone and wood versions where its Earth origin had come from. Glass roofs would allow natural light to filter in at certain degree, providing illumination while keeping the glare and unnecessary heat out to produce electricity. The halls were decorated with the Renaud coat of arms that dated back to the family's French origins since Bastille Day, where among the oldest records of their lineage had been recorded.

On the perimeters of the high decks surrounding the house was a squad of private contractors assigned to guard. All nine men carried Misriah weapons and were all decorated veterans of the Human-Covenant War. However, for the meeting and its visitors, security was among the least of concern today.

A group of limousines sat on the semicircle driveway beyond the metal gates that led up to the chateau's entrance.

Inside, a party was held with people mingling, chatting with each other or enjoying refreshments served by the compliments of the host's wine cellar, many of the brands from New Corsica's finest wineries, the most expensive bottle costing over four thousand credits. The buyer got to choose the color of the diamond that came with the included bottle opener.

After the party, the guests headed back home. Some had their cars driven and others hopped back into their limousine to head back to their hotels or to Verona Beach's Sky Gateway Spaceport. However, the more important figures, drifted towards a long room at the end of the house. This room was equipped with a Faraday shield as well as a single recording device to monitor a meeting, tended to by two members of the chateau's security team. A long table was in the center made of polished mahogany. On the center, a long object sat, whatever was underneath was obscured by polarized plastic.

The table sat nearly a dozen men, all in uniformed black suits. Attendants placed glasses and poured water, being called back after the man at the head waved his hand. The armed guard that had accompanied them received a nod from the head man and he retreated through the side door to the eastern part of the house.

Emile Renaud was at the head of the table. Like when they settled on New Corsica, he was born just when Verona Beach started to undergo major growth economically. The Renaud's were an old and wealthy presence on the colony since its foundation in the 2200s. He was raised Catholic, but often sacrificed his religion to become a bishop in the financial world. Highly respected for his dedication, every day of his life went to the accumulation of more money. It was expected of him to have a wife as well as four children, three sons and a daughter because he'd allowed himself to sleep with her multiple occasions. He had considered them a distraction that was beneficial from his objectives and yet did not know any of their birthdays, or even when he last saw his only daughter, now twenty-one years old and a student at Stanford back at Earth's California region.

Renaud's hours were like clockwork six days each week. He arrived at his head office on the top fortieth floor of the UEG Finanical Administration's headquarters in downtown Verona Beach at seven every morning and left at eight each night. Sundays were the exception, with him on his datapad and personal computer nearly six hours. He had never smoked in his life and had only taken a sip of liquor once. Often because of his position, he had a Miami class yacht that he used for transport. Most of the time, his meetings required others to come to him.

Those who often worked for him had rarely ever seen him smile, only when he was really amused and even then it was usually not a warm one either. Only a serious problem in the banking world would reveal any emotion stored in his fifty-eight year old body, which was a gravitational pull on the corners of his mouth that arced downward. His finely combed hair was the color of snow, with empty eyes that many claim have never seen any form of jovial emotion.

Surrounding the table were men that were similar men, albeit younger, but not by much. Like him, their dedication to the cause of money was equally as hard. All the people at the tables headed the majority of the banks around the Inner and Outer Colonies. Their decisions affected billions of lives everyday and today, the foundation of the United Earth Government's economy was on the verge of destruction.

Renaud reached out to the plastic cover and removed it. The object underneath pulsed out a warm yellow color. This twenty pound gold bar was nearly ninety nine point nine percent gold, with her worth estimated at over two hundred and ten thousand credits. To those who have never seen one, before they would be awestruck at a high amount of wealth and would easily be scrambling and hitting each other to take possession of the valuable bar. The professional bankers around the table usually would not drastically react to what the object was, but some of them had emotions stirring on their faces. He even heard one of them draw a shallow breath before glancing nervously around those seated nearby.

"Gentlemen," Renaud's voice was crisp as the cold aura he radiated. "There is a crisis on our hands. Our estimates of months remain as humanity's colonies are now running out of its supply of gold. Demand right now trumps supply four times over. All because of greed."

The audience remained as stoic as they possibly could, but Renaud could see some of them going pale. A hint of anger was in one of their eyes, but he smothered it, knowing that this was no place to exert it.

"The process is simple; people would borrow money in loans and repay that with interest. The ongoing loaning and interest continued to cycle and regulate the economy without any flaw. By paying for a simply fraction of the worth as the gold sat in vaults with value unmoved as you gained more wealth, it would have been fine and contained."

"However greed has overcome all of you and without proper circulation, it has become worthless. Now it is now worn on the fingers and necks of women all over the place. Needless to say, your greed for more gold has become irreparable."

"Emile, you're aware of this because some of us are not able to be present in this room." A stern faced Italian interrupted, "Some of the former associates that you met had been previously shut down by their staff because of such problems you're talking about."

"I'm well aware of that Mr. Cardani. Now being shut down because of the greed is currently the least of our problems." Renaud shot Cardani a look that silenced anything the Italian had to follow.

"Now as I was saying, our trust in our…no your banks was ensued with maximizing all the possible capital that we are given with. Now once that trust is misused, the heads of the banks are canned and the new leaders have relatively little experience to lead them back from the holes that the conspirators have dug. Even if we pooled all of our funds, there isn't a fraction that can be covered on what we owe."

"Can we increase production?" The head of Reach's second largest bank asked.

"Not possible," This came from another man across the table, a representative of the only gold mining company on Earth, who was headquartered in Johannesburg. Unlike the other bankers, he did not have a jacket draped over his dress shirt and his tie showed signs of aging, from many uses from meetings like these. In contrast, he had worked to obtain all of his wealth, opposed to the others who were handed it to them on gem crusted plates. "Even if we were to level out all of our current mines, there wouldn't be enough gold to cover a fraction of the crisis."

"Would you care for an explanation Mr. Argovitz?" Emile gestured to the South African miner.

Argovitz stood up from his spot, eyeing every gold-hungry person in the room. "Our findings of gold are getting even slimmer as we head deeper into the mines. This has been much of an issue ever since gold was ever discovered in South Africa. Now with little being found, we can't make as much and all it takes is for the workers to rally against the managers for our industry and those who benefit from us."

"Is it possible to dig deeper?" A financer from the Outer Colonies asked.

Argovitz shook his head, "It is absolutely possible for us to go deeper, but we just can't. Think of the mines as a skyscraper. If you want to expand it, it can't be done by simply adding a floor, you have to reinforce the base of the structure to support the added weight as well as gas, water pipes and electrical lines. Same thing goes for our mines, only instead of the things I said earlier, we would need means of transport, accommodations and tools necessary to dig. That gold down there is very hard to get out and the equipment is costly. It can be done, but the expense is far greater than the profit."

"We are ruined!" The banker from Reach cried out, "Now the Reach economy will spiral out of control and there is nothing we can do but watch hopelessly!"

"It's not only yours," The banker named Cardani replied, "Especially interplanetary loans would decrease in value and we would have to draw from our reserves, which will already have also decreased."

Suddenly the banker heads were all pale as Renaud himself. He had watched the others at the table debate for nearly a half hour before whispering in Argovitz's ear. The other man nodded and quietly left the room.

"You called us here because you have a solution?" The head of Sigma Ocatnus IV's largest bank asked.

"That's correct." He responded, taking a noiseless sip from his glass. "Recently, my scouts have found one of the largest groups of gold veins ever found." He raised an eyebrow when the color finally returned to the other and some breathed a sigh of relief. "This discovery has gold deposits that the smallest one quadruple the ones found in California in 1849 and that's just the valley. Flint is much more remote after the Covenant had invaded and partially glassed it. Mines can be set up and new gold, which is high in value, can be within our grasp within the week."

"How do you plan to do it?" The Sigma Octanus man asked. In response, Renaud's palm datapad blinked and he slid an icon to the left. A moment later, the doors opened and another man strode in. He was a little younger than the men at the table. His frame was quite solid and he stood at nearly six feet. His swagger was one of confidence and relied on intimidation to tell others what he intended. A nasty scar on his left arm was visible from his short sleeved shirt. It was more of his undeniable presence that brought wariness to the others.

"I introduce you to Ryan Weld. He was in charge of the classified investors who had backed the CRF and the Beta Centauri Separatist Federation along with multiple other terror and rebel groups. He was imprisoned by the UNSC after the Centauri's final defeat at Dresden, but on my orders, I had him report to me for this specific assignment as a private consultant." The others had visibly hardened in the presence of a former Insurrectionist.

"I have been making moves to help counter these drops, seeing how something like this was coming for years. What I am about to propose to you can't be argued against or changed. Every one of you must agree with what Weld is about to outline."

It took Ryan Weld fifteen uninterrupted minutes to tell them how he would be bringing their banks back from the brink. The faces at the table went from confusion, anger and outrage. Cardani looked as if he was going to throw up and even the tough bankers from Reach, one of them Renaud knew had fought in the Human-Covenant War had whitened. Renaud looked at each man at the table, each of them all had conflicted expressions and the Sigma Octanus banker buried his face in his hands moaning, unable to bear what he had just forcibly agreed to.

"I will be making the moves." Renaud took over once Weld had finished, "There is no other way. We will never be meeting like this again."

"We'll meet again all right." Cardani shot him a glare, "In Hell."

* * *

**Whatever the method of saving these banks consists of, it probably isn't going to be a pleasant one due to the last remark in the meeting. Enjoy the second chapter in a day.**


	7. In the Shadows III

_**Ballista**_** heading to the rendezvous point in Saturn's rings, Sol System**

**Unknown Location**

**August 2, 2558**

_Ballista_'s thrusters powered down to half as Dan Tyler brought her to the orbiting rings of Saturn. Colonized after Jupiter, all the human settlements were all on her moons, as the gas giant's atmosphere was far too violent with storms for anything to be inhabitable, not to mention temperatures well below the negative. Despite being close to Earth and her colonies in the Sol System, Mars, the Jovian moons and Pluto, Saturn's moon colonies were sparsely populated. Many that would first see Saturn would be marveled at her gorgeous rings that encircled the planet's creamy tan surface. However, most of that aweing would immediately disappear when they were much closer; the rings were not solid rather extremely tightly bound chunks of ice. It had posed as a hazard to traffic in the past and thus the UNSC had restricted any ships from flying within five miles of the ring fields, save for tour vessels of the rings that were handled by some of the best pilots.

The UNSC had equipped radar sensors that orbited the ring's circumference around the planet. These sensors would quickly detect a ship within the ring field and UNSC ships could be deployed to either assist or detain the vessel inside depending on the condition. There were gaps within the sensors and that was the Blades' opportunity to deliver their captured target, Prith to their ONI clients. The Naval Intelligence spooks were hiding in the field where a set beacon had guided the stealth frigate. From there, they would broadcast a low powered, but precise signal. To help minimize detection, the Blades had told the ONI ship's commander that they would be using their hangar and making the delivery in the team's T-52 Phantom.

After maneuvering through the chunks of ice, some no larger than a grenade, others bigger than a house, the Phantom finally reached the first gap in the rings closest to the planet. The Colombo Gap was the first major space between the fine span.

Ahead, a shimmer of distortion rippled quickly. Hexagonal shapes dispersed as the advanced ONI Prowler recognized the Blades' transport, decloaking from its stealth system. Corvettes specially built for being undetectable, these vessels found themselves being operated by the Office of Naval Intelligence, however a small number were also assigned to the conventional Navy. Rather than a standard fighting ship, a Prowler would be gathering intelligence while staying out of detection by its stealth coating. The _Ballista_ was equipped with a similar cloaking device capable of eluding detection from even ONI grade radar. If a ship was ever compromised, it sported twin pulse laser turrets for defense. Prowlers would also often lay out hidden mines to weaken Covenant fleets enough for UNSC ships to lay waste.

"Type fifty two Phantom, this is the UNSC _American Dream_. Continue your heading and descend to three nine by six seven. I will have hangar dock Bravo open shortly."

"_American Dream_, Phantom complies." Aegis turned the controls back to Vaal as he went back into the main cabin. The Covenant dropship descended and slowed as a manager guided the craft inside the small hangar. Being large enough to fit only one craft on the pad at any time, the ONI spooks had moved one of their covert pelicans out of the way so that the exchange could take place with their exit craft still present. Prith had been knocked out prior to his transportation to the ship and now Conan Pyra goaded him in handcuffs.

Vaal settled the ship and put the engines on idle. He would remain inside with the frontal plasma gun active in case the team walked into a trap. Aegis, Pyra, Prith, two ODSTs named Hamed and Laura walked out to greet their clients. The Blades commander hardened at the man standing opposite, flanked by a pair of masked ONI bodyguards. Without a word, he had stuck his hand out. Reluctantly, Aegis shook it.

"I assume that the snatch went well?" Adamant coolly asked.

"More or less, all he's missing is a greeting card. Not very intimidating to look at up close."

"Yeah you can say that." Adamant scoffed, waving his two bodyguards away. "He's been a murderer of both innocent human and Covenant species. Looks can be very deceiving."

Prith stirred, then finally snapped awake, eyes wide with fear as he took in where exactly he was. Letting out a screech, he squirmed in an attempt to break free before realizing that he was bound and held by a much bigger and stronger Spartan.

"Who the hell are you people?" He demanded, "This is an outrage! You can't take me!"

"We have the right to." Adamant threw him a murderous look, "You look just like the type that will tell us everything when we show you a little tingly stick." He had been referring to a stun baton. Aegis had carried one of those during his days as a spook. Training involved being hit repeatedly. Definitely wasn't a happy experience for him and he still had marks to prove it.

One of the bodyguards reached into a pouch on his hip and drew a syringe filled with a clear liquid. He moved over to Prith and began rubbing his shoulder with an alcohol soaked cloth.

"This is torture! You human filth know nothing but torture!" He struggled even more, but Pyra effortlessly kept his binding grip. That was enough Aegis had. He ripped the skirmisher warlord from the other Spartan's grasp and held him by the neck, raising him high and using a wall as assistance. He gagged, but everyone was spellbound to do anything about it. Even Vaal and Adamant were awestruck at the rage that he now possessed.

"You want to know what torture is like? I'm happy to oblige." He gritted his teeth, using his other arm to pinch a nerve bundle in the neck. Prith let out a scream as if he had been seared by an iron. His cries of agony brought little relief to the commander's actions. Aegis intensified his action, moving his hand, turning the pitch up and down like he was tuning a musical instrument.

"Stop!" Adamant bellowed sharply. A second later, the armored Spartan dropped Pirth on the floor. He moaned in pain as he collapsed against the wall. A sound that resembled weeping came from him as he breathed heavily.

"I'd like your men to see you in this pathetic state now." Aegis snarled. Prith made no response as he continued to keep whatever dignity he had intact. Adamant nodded to the other bodyguard who once again swabbed the shoulder with the cloth before inserting the needle. He was out within seconds.

"Nasty drug." Adamant turned back as his accomplices bound and hauled the pirate away from them. "Wipes out their memory of everything witnessed in the past twenty four hours."

"Even the pain part?" Hamed asked.

"No." Adamant smiled slightly, "He'll remember that." Reaching into his pocket, he took out a small datapad. Knowing what this was, Aegis produced his and synchronized both devices. His pad went green as Adamant conducted his payment.

"Your payment of nine million credits. I will be informing you of anything else I get, but in the meantime, I feel we're even."

"I suppose so." Aegis led his crew back to the phantom.

* * *

**UNSC **_**Ballista**_

"That was incredibly fast." Aegis sat down with his datapad in hand. "I just get a debriefing from all my operatives and we've already got someone else asking for help?"

Drew Rayson, now out of his Davis costume shrugged. "You should know who. Heard from Koyara lately?"

Aegis stopped short, "God, I haven't seen him since…forever!"

Irotako Koyara was the head of Koyara Shipping Limited, a major UEG shipping company that traveled to the Outer and Inner Colonies. Aegis had known him from years, starting with attending graduate school together on Europa before he had moved to Reach. During the Battle of Ariel, when the Covenant had abandoned the planet for an unknown cause, Koyara, who had inherited his shipping empire from his father, had sent a trio of freighters laden with precious supplies to help. The population had been so grateful, a bronze statue in his honor was erected in front of the Ariel's governing house. Koyara and Aegis were both out of contact with each other, but reunited during Aegis' graduation as a Spartan IV, years before he started the Blades. One of the boys on Aegis' datapad background picture was Irotako Koyara. He was one of the two people in the picture who Aegis knew for certain had done. One thing he truly liked ever since their first meeting was his selflessness. Even after being at Koyara Limited's head, he never let the money go to his head. Several developing colonies and areas desperate had been accepted of his generous donors.

"Well he only sent a short message. Mainly directed to you, he's approached us because of pirate problems."

"More pirates? This gets better and better."

"It does, he's saying that two of his freighters were nearly attacked yesterday but managed to see a third smaller ship far from a shipping lane being swarmed by boarding vessels."

"This is the November Kilo route they are talking about?"

"No, much farther out. This multimillion credit industry is growing every year, but compared to what his freighters saw farther out, it was much different. The pirates are also human, not just jackals and skirmishers." Drew looked back at the screen, "He says to make them pay like a Dragon Striker facing the Warrior's defense."

Aegis laughed out loud, knowing Koyara always had loved the Pinnacle League of Gravball. Being played from child to adult, gravball was enjoyed by all. The Striker would often be the main offense player, who would hit the ball into the goal spots of the defenders. The Dragons of East Asia of Earth were among the best offense gravball teams in the league while the Warriors from city New Paris on Mars were among the most difficult to score points against.

"But what's happening out there is much similar to what Prith and his goons tried on us. Entire freighters and ships are disappearing without a trace."

Trip went into deep thought; they already had some leads on where he could begin, from the place that the freighters had spotted the pirate motherships. However, he left himself dedicated to the cause alone. As much as he wanted to help his friend in need, other jobs had the possibility of popping up and he wouldn't be able to tackle the more lucrative tasks. Even though, he held every captain's loathe for the scrounge of the oceans and vacuum of space. He knew that long ago, pirates were viewed as savage men with long unkempt beards, missing a leg or an arm and parrots on their shoulders. Then came the twenty first century, the modern day pirates who were often frail looking, but at the same time highly threatening. When the space travel was modernized, pirates continued to lurk, ambushing any unsuspecting vessel for ransom or just to prey on the fear that the ship's occupants would radiate from.

"What's he offering?"

"Two hundred thousand every week from two to four weeks and another million for every pirate ship and crew we neutralize. He's also offering another million to find out what happened to any of his fleet."

Aegis sighed; the million per ship destroyed would barely cover the cost. He knew that it would sound enticing to others of the hefty sum, but everyone was well aware of how quickly the Blades could burn through the money. One of the most expensive things were missiles, costing several hundred thousand apiece. Plasma batteries were also costly, with them having the fortune to have Vaal Talam know a manufacturer on Qikost who sold them their plasma supply at a discounted cost.

"Did Koyara send the coordinates of our beginning?"

"He would send it once we agreed."

"Alright," He straightened, heading back to the control center. "Tell him that we're agreeing to the assignment. However we have two conditions, instead make it two and a half million per ship destroyed and the right to disconnect the contract within twenty four hours of notice."

"You got it."

"Also get Ril and Ty to start making a cover story as he head back into the danger zone. I want them to make us sound like another tempting target."

"You're already seven steps ahead."

"Not for a shower."

"So you're proposing?" Drew raised an eyebrow, sometimes a little protest came out when one of Trip's outside the box ideas that often put the ship into jeopardy.

"Well for one it takes a pirate to catch a pirate."

* * *

**I suppose it does. Get ready for some action next chapter!**


	8. Strike First I

**Location unknown, provided by Koyara**

**August 3, 2558**

"I've got my missiles hot!" Riley turned back in his chair to look at the commander. "Ready to fire on your go!"

"Let it loose!"

The Blades had found a pair of pirate ships that were aside a third smaller derelict. All three vessels were battered, the pirates' being from lengthy use and the unknown from being impacted by the skirmishers in an attempt to scuttle it. The _Ballista_ seemed to appear out of nowhere when she attacked, bringing down one of the ships and the second one trying to flee.

The smaller pirate ship, the one that was fleeing had its hull raked with bullet holes from the antiair artillery and miniguns. She had slowed down as flames danced in her port hangars. On their frequency, they were sending out a short range call for help to an unknown point. They could have done a longer ranged broadcast, but Riley had his minigun trained on the comm tower, having them resort to their secondary one.

"Keep the second ship trained in your sights Wepps. McGarrett, Pyra, Armes, Sofia and I are going onboard to take a look at where the pirate base might be." He made sure all his mentions heard the announcement as he headed to the armory to become encased in his armor. Weapons were a simple choice, a M7 submachine gun and his favorite A9 handgun. Sofia Inselton; the Blades' chief medic, had the least amount of arms with her customized M6G tranquilizer. Aegis had brought her along in case they had a medical evaluation that may trace further evidence.

Their pelican exited the hangar, accelerating towards the burning ship. No hails from the vessel and no guns were brought online to fire at the boarders. Trip tried not to think of it as a trap when the pilot released the back hatch and the team jumped out. They activated their boot thrusters to decelerate so that they gently landed on the ship's hull. It was unshielded, so there was no need to blast it to knock out its protection. Now all that remained was eliminating the personnel onboard.

Finding a hatch would take too long, so Aegis and Suvorov brought a laser cutter to carve their own entrance onto the top deck. Dan Tyler helped them find the correct place to slice their way in. The cutter's blue beam effortlessly sliced through the metal skin of the Covenant pirate ship. With the entire thing free, a small cloud of green gas rose from the cracks and escaped into space. With it free, Armes was the first one inside, kicking the panel and instantly he was sucked inside the opening, pulled by the ship's artificial gravity generator. Aegis was next with Armes directing the others inside as well. He looked at the shape underneath, seeing a very unfortunate skirmisher underneath the weight of the slab. It was very much a painless death.

"Alright, let's get heading to the bridge."

They agreed to split up, with Suvorov and Armes looking for an extraction so that they could extract a few corpses that they killed along the way back to Ballista for examination. Aegis, Sofia and Laura McGarrett headed to the bridge.

Instantly the trio was met with resistance from nearly a dozen skirmishers. The Spartan's shields flared an orange glow as they were struck with plasma rounds. Aegis found his M7 to be out of any useful purpose at such a long range, so he had his A9 out and putting rounds downrange. His first victim flinched, twisting his head sideways from the neat hole punched in his head.

Laura McGarrett had remained at the back pillar. Since she had no armor, any shots that would hit her would do much more serious damage than to her shielded partners. Although a sniper was her specialty, it would have been unwieldy and harder to use than when she had been scoping out the boarders back on their mission to capture Prith. Instead, she carried an M392 DMR and crouched in the center of the pillar, following Aegis' hand signals when it was a good opportunity to shoot. He waved his hand to signal her. She shot out of her spot, immediately targeting what she had appeared to be the leader of the group. He flinched as the round went through his shoulder, stumbling back and returning shooting with his carbine. The greenish projectiles impeacted in the pillar above her head and she instinctively ducked. Two loud squawks were heard as both Spartans each ambushed a pirate around the corners.

Trip had seized his victim's face and yanked it to the left so that it broke at an unnatural angle. Sofia had slammed her open palm into the skirmisher's face. Purple blood stained the floor as the blow knocked out his body fluids. She drew her dart pistol and shot him three times.

It was clear that Aegis wanted to end early because he primed a grenade and tossed it over to the wall. The angle it had hit the side bounced it into the area the skirmishers were firing at them. Three of them were blown sky high, with limbs that were atomized by the blast. He swept the corner, spraying the survivors from his M7 caseless. The bodies were turned into stew with blood splashed over like a sick looking sauce.

"Bridge is right over here!" Aegis and the girls sprinted to the large set of doors. After pressing a button on the panel, the hatch blinked from red to purple, sliding open soundlessly, save for the common beeping noise on all Covenant ships.

The bridge of the pirate ship was vast, nearly as large as a Covenant light frigate. The controls were much like a pyramid, with them emerging at the top right behind the commander's seat. Nobody was present on the controls, with them all running on autopilot. Trip was about to call out clear to his teammates when he saw something else.

The figure was human for certain, but his back was to them, obscuring his identity. He hadn't been wearing any gear for his ears, so he had obviously not heard them.

"Hey!" He called out to the stranger, "Put your hands where I can see them."

Instead of complying, the man turned around with a Needler launcher in hand.

"Son of a.." Laura stammered.

The man fired his gun, a long beam of needles accelerated towards the three, dispersing as the particles were ridiculously out of range. Also out of range, Aegis raised his submachine gun, returning fire. None of his bullets hit.

Instantly, realizing he was outgunned by two Spartans and an ODST, he turned tail and headed left, most likely to reach the nearby escape crafts.

Sofia was the first to react, already bringing up her dart gun to shoot. A single dart popped out of the M6's barrel, impacting the man's spine. Blood shot out in a plume and he immediately went limp, collapsing on the floor.

"Oh my god." Sophia gasped, dropping her pistol, turning away from her work in utter frustration. "I'm so sorry…I."

"You did what you had to." Aegis assured her, placing a hand on the other Spartan's shoulder. "I would have done the same thing out of reflex." He looked to Laura, who gave him a thumbs up after she had cleared the rest of the bridge.

"Commander, it's Riley." His comlink came to life after the weapons expert had opened a channel.

"Go ahead."

"The ship that the pirates are playing chicken with is being tended to by them before we interfered. I think there might be something they are trying to salvage something from her."

"Is there any way someone on the ship could survive?"

"Hold on." Inside _Ballista_'s ops room, Riley toggled the scanners as he swept them over the ill-fated research ship. "Scanning is picking up a couple of sealed areas. There is a faint heat signature, but I'm unable to tell."

"Okay. Tell the pelican to drop me off on the wreckage and then retrieve the rest of the team back once they've cleared the ship of hostiles. When Drew gives the go-ahead, I want you to burn these pirate ships."

It took only a couple of minutes to jog back to the hangar, where they disabled one of the shield doors, letting the pelican in. Armes and Suvorov were on the other side of the room, using a large tug on massive gravity pods to haul an enormous dome shaped container.

"Whatever the pirates were hiding," Armes tapped the side of the box, "It was in here. This was probably the most heavily defended out of everything."

"I'd have to agree." The commander replied, "There was only one person on the bridge…and it was a human."

"This gets better and better." Suvorov deadpanned.

"I'm not going to have enough room for the commander plus all of your new toys." The pilot reported, hovering just a couple of feet above the floor.

"We're not done securing the ship." Suvorov thumbed back towards the stern. "Give us ten minutes and a dozen dead pirates and I think we'll be good to go."

Aegis climbed inside and sat in the copilot's seat. The dropship left the hangar and quickly sped towards the floating wreckage. It had now drifted into the geosynchronous orbit around a pale moon, which reflected off the hull in her luminous gray light.

He slowed in zero gravity as the Pelican's hatch opened, releasing him into the void. Activating his magnetic boots, he had settled on the hull just like on the pirate vessel. Taking slow deliberate steps, Aegis observed the multiple plasma burns and splashes of blood that were on the ship's interior. They cast an eerie ambiance whenever he shone his helmet's flashlight through the windows. He saw the black name painted on her bright blue hull _Ge Hun,_ but most of her identity was charred out by plasma bolts that may have impacted days ago. He had found himself peering into one of the windows near the stern when suddenly the entire hull shuddered as he felt the heavy feeling inside himself. The wreckage was descending towards the moon's gravity pull.

In that same window, ice had formed along the pane, obstructing any clear view inside. However, after shining his light inside, he suddenly felt a thump; although weak it was no mistake.

"Son of a bitch. Somebody's alive." He moved to the next window, where ice was much less present. Now with the view's clarity much improved, it gave him a good long look inside. He was looking at a cabin with blood stains on the floor in Picasso shapes and sizes. The previously neat room was now all over the place with books and torn pages. Clothes looked as if they had been combined together now had frozen solid. Desperate to search for someone alive, he angled his light around.

Finally he saw a shadow move and nearly recoiled as a ghostly skinned woman appeared at the other side of the window. She wore a bunch of jackets and wool clothes that were bunched up, but it was quite evident that it was wet. With fear-filled eyes, she breathed onto the window, forming condensation that crystallized into ice. He had to estimate that it could have been much below freezing. The ice on the window was wiped away, leaving smears.

As soon as she appeared, she had departed into another room, coming back a moment later. Trip wanted to hurry and he wasn't completely sure on how to get this stranger out. The woman returned holding a red pen and one of the books with the torn pages. She scribbled something on it and held it out, the writing took him a minute a decipher because her hands had been shaking and it was so illegible.

"_Better late than never"_

Trip raised an eyebrow in amusement. Her face had an odd shade of blue and her shivers were uncontrollable. It didn't take a theorist to tell that her body temperature was dropping.

He remembered that he also had a datapad in his left thigh case. After double checking that he had his boots secured to the hull, he took out the palm sized tablet and typed, "_Are you alright?"_

She gave him a stare that told him that he was stupid to ask, given the statistics, but nodded anyway.

A solid clank on the hull caused him to nearly jump in surprise. Armes had reached his side with additional equipment. Without taking his eyes off of the survivor, he gave him signals to the crew onboard and sent him back to _Ballista_. The ship had been caught even deeper into the gravity pull, given the rate of their plummeting; he had less than seven minutes to get her out before the drawing crushed the vessel.

"_Who are you?"_ She wrote on another of the pages.

He stuck his datapad to the window with his name typed out. She gave another look of frustration and anger and turned the page writing. "_Navy?"_

How was he supposed to explain that? He responded that he headed a freelancer team hired to eliminate the skirmisher pirate influence around the area. His response seemed satisfying, bringing a bit of relief to her eyes.

"_Is there a pressurized area where we can bring in an extraction?"_

"_The aft hatch about ten feet down is still sealed, if your craft is a pelican." _The woman's movements were getting slower and her eyes closed then opened again. Aegis knew that once she fell asleep, it would be impossible to wake her. He hammered his arm on the window, careful not to use his full augmented strength in case he broke it. Totally possible, the Spartan's strength was quite enough to easily shatter the glass, especially when combined with his MJOLNIR armor.

"_What is your name?"_ He typed, holding it to the glass.

"_Meredith_" It took her a few seconds to write it down.

"_You must stay awake Meredith! If you fall asleep you're dead! Is there a sealed area where I can get in?"_

His facts must have gotten to Meredith's head as she looked around before writing on her last page, which was already wet with below zero water. She nodded, pointing to the hatch mentioned earler.

"_Head to the second area and do not exit no matter what."_

Meredith nodded, nearly falling on herself, but managing to catch her body. Had he been able to get through the window without creating a disastrous change in pressure, he would have been at her side in seconds, cradling her cold body in his arms.

Aegis detached his boots and used his thruster pack to scale the side towards the hatch. With the diameter about the width of the pelican's back hatch, he sent further instructions to the transport. Opening the hatch, he lowered himself inside; making sure that the status light was green for being shut completely. Continuing through the interior, he stopped at the sealed hatch to the second room. With a couple of knocks on the door, he waited, getting one in return. She had made it.

As the door opened, another shudder took him by surprise and both the rescue and rescuer were thrown into the wall. The groaning came from the ship as if laying on her deathbed. She jerked upwards again. Trip quickly got onto his feet, but Meredith was much slower, with her endurance rapidly draining.

"Trip! This is Drew! We've got the hulk being pulled back down by the moon! We've hitched Ballista to her hull and are throttling it in the opposite direction, but hurry! The cables are already straining past their limit!"

"I'm working as fast as I possibly can!" With his subject currently freezing, his priority was to help get her temperature back to normal. Reaching into his pouch, he took out some warming packets, squeezing them vigorously to start their reaction. He peeled back her clothing, making her flinch slightly, stuffing the heated pellets inside. She must have lapsed between her states of mind, but probably knew that they were going to be okay when a stranger had gotten into her pants.

The ship groaned again as they heard the pelican settle on the hatch which opened a second later, with ODST McGarrett and Spartan Armes bounding out. They saw Aegis and his passenger and rushed forward. Laura bringing her DMR to cover their backs in case of a hidden threat and Rex Armes had take Meredith's other side as they sloshed through the cold water, now with ice floes drifting as if near the polar region. Working quickly, the four of them got inside the pelican, which sealed its bay and unlatched to the ship's side. Looking outward, Trip could see the _Ballista's _twin cable launchers and cords attached to the remains of the other ship. Unfortunately the silvery moon was now very close, with the wreck falling even closer. The frigate's engines were on as maximum as they possibly could go without straining the cable, but it was much of a losing fight.

"We're clear!" Aegis shouted to Drew back aboard. Seconds later, the cords snapped as the engineer cut the lines. The destroyed ship, now fully unrestrained, plummeted towards the surface, eager to make its newest crater.

As the pelican was guided inside the hangar bay, Aegis found himself battling against sleep. Sofia immediately rushed in once they landed to tend to their newest passenger while the others, still in much better condition than him, began to head back to the armory to remove their suits.

Drew had appeared out of nowhere behind Aegis as he removed his helmet. The air smelled of hydraulics and oil, but it felt like first breath on clean mountain atmosphere. His partner held a steaming ceramic cup of coffee.

"Sorry mate. No booze until your blood is back to normal."

He had no energy to argue that it was worth the risk for the worst case of decompression ever recorded, but as he sipped it, he savored the familiar sting. Drew had put in a shot of whiskey.

* * *

**Bit of a close call! So what does Meredith know about their pirate targets? Or will she even tell them?**


	9. Strike First II

_**Ballista**_

**August 3, 2558**

Meredith Adrian found herself coming awake. She stirred, moaning as pain ached throughout her limbs and a knot on the back of her head began throbbing. The vision was blurred, forcing her to well tears and blink them back for better clarity. She was in a bed inside a spacious room, the walls a solid white and grayish equipment in the corner holding two packs of Optican medigel. At the far end, there were four individuals and she nearly jumped upon seeing much more detailed pictures. The one on the far left was the complete odd one out, his features were much different than the normal human and he towered over the other three. The sangheili, or elite glanced at the other three humans, hoping that their presence would not convey as less threatening. At first she had thought that the elite was there to take her life, but then recomposed herself, if the elite wanted to kill her, he would have done it long ago.

The humans, two male and one female nodded. She wore a blank white lab coat that was just as spotless as the walls and had gray eyes that radiated compassion. Her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail. The older man had more weathered features and the light in his blue eyes shone of a gruff hardened veteran. There was no doubt that he was involved in the war. It was the second man who held her attention. He was in his mid-thirties with lines chiseled into his features. However they were done by hardened experience rather than age. She noted a hint of humor in his black eyes that resembled voids; obviously this was a man who had won the majority of his life struggles.

"Rise and shine." The woman was the first to speak. Her voice indicated that she had come from Northern Europe. "How are you feeling?"

Meredith tried to speak, but her throat wouldn't allow her. The older man reached to the nightstand producing a cup with a straw. He held it out to her mouth, letting her latch on and sip greedily at the water, enjoying how it dissipated the dry roof of her mouth. She emptied the entire cup, watching as the man handed it to the sangheili to refill it.

"I'm okay. Really cold."

"When the team that got you out had brought you here, your core temperature was a couple degrees lower than what most medical charts say is survivable. You're very fortunate."

Meredith looked down, now realizing that some blankets covered her body with some of them being warmed. She shivered, but now could feel some of her toes and fingers.

"This is the ship's infirmiary." The woman moved to a portable panel that was displaying her vitals. "I'm Sofia Inselton, chief medic. The elite is Vaal Talam, the older man is Drew Rayson and our commander here is Trip Aegis." She looked at the man, who stared back unblinking. A tug on his lips upward gave no more resolution to who he was, but his name felt so familiar.

"He was the one who rescued you from the depths of the ship." Vaal's deep voice came out like a threatening deity, seeming to boom throughout the section everywhere at once. However it was rimmed with an honorable aura, even if she didn't know that he had killed humans in the past.

"Do you remember anything from what had happened on your ship?" Sofia asked.

"I remember hearing lots of gunfire and hiding. A bunch of pirates, I think were ragtag skirmishers had looted the ship. They killed everyone…so many bodies."

"It's okay." Commander Aegis held up his hand, "You've probably been through hell and back, so no need to rush."

"Other than the whole crew being dead, I don't remember much else." She buried her face in her hands.

"I'm not surprised." Sofia said, "The body can be exposed to excessive amounts of trauma and often have defenses to prevent any attempt to bring the subject back."

"We had come across the two pirate vessels that must have been trying to salvage the ship you were hiding on. Because it was caught in such an erratic orbit around the moon, we had to work fast to get you out. You're very lucky, due to minutes after we left, the ship had crashed on the surface and that wouldn't have been survivable."

Her eyes widened in realization, "You! You were the one in the suit that had come to my rescue! I remember that you attempted to get in the hatch! I thought that you were going to have me killed, but really, you needed to equalize the pressure inside the ship so that your extraction could also arrive without any problems!"

Aegis smiled, "It was no big deal. As long as you're alive and well, that's all that matters to me."

"God, I've never been so cold in my life. I'm surprised that my teeth weren't chipped from chattering so hard."

He chuckled, the sound warming her heart. "Also, coming from last night, you spoke to Leah Roush, the ship's third officer. Do you remember anything from that?"

"No." Her voice shook as she spoke. "I may have just been delirious and tired." Aegis shared a wary glance with Sofia. She narrowed her eyes and made a near imperceptible nod towards Meredith.

"You told her that there were two more ships during the initial attack on your ship. One of them was among the largest ships you've seen and another that seemed to be another captured ship."

Their guest coughed, graciously accepting the cup of water from Vaal who had just returned. "If I don't remember what has happened two days ago since they attacked, then I likely won't know anything about ships." She turned her head to look at Sofia. "I think I would need some sleep now." She regarded Aegis as he reached the exit. "And Commander? Thank you for saving my life."

The Spartan medic nodded, dismissing the three males, "Of course. At the end of your nightstand is a switch that will send a signal that I will respond to. Call me if you need anything."

The three Blades founders exited the medical district, heading back to the operations center.

"Man, she was just perfect for you." Drew whistled, "I bet the rest of her body is just as good."

"Well her way with words is pretty feisty as well." Trip responded, Vaal who had been a couple paces ahead practically groaned. "I'm just glad that Leah had the idea to debrief Miss Adrian last night. I certainly wouldn't have thought of it."

"Well regarding the shape that you were in, I'm astounded that you managed to reach your cabin."

"Either way," Vaal now turned to both of them, "She said that her description of the pirates and their ships indicate that she may have some of your military training."

"Or maybe that the ship had been owned by a scientific organization and she's merely applying her observational skills."

Vaal stepped into the bridge door's field sensor so that it soundlessly slid open. "So then why would she have anything to hide? There's much more to this than what we've been given. Nobody, not even Leah has told her how long she was trapped. Yet here she knows the exact number of days spent in the wreck."

"I don't like it either." Trip passed his chair on the bridge, which was currently occupied by Leah and strode over to Dan Tyler. Riley was not at his station presently which was perfectly fine. Aegis needed answers and they would instead combine jargon to scramble his head.

"Tyler, up for some research?"

"You got it boss." He minimized his current screen on his datapad. The commander chuckled at his helmsman's embarrassment as he hid the online dating window. "What am I looking for?"

"I'm searching for a ship that is about the size of a UNSC cruiser with large holds and enormous locks. She had five triangular engines in a V formation."

Dan cocked his eyebrow, "That's all you have?" He had wanted something more challenging to go on with.

"I'm afraid so. Other than that it may have been spotted in this area as long as two days ago."

Tyler typed something on his keyboard, "Well judging from what you said, she may have been a heavy freighter, tanker or even a UNSC carrier, but I doubt the latter would be correct seeing how we'd be informed by Navy unless they're on a classified op. I'll punch it into the system anyway."

"Good man." Trip left his cabin to answer a hail on his pad. It was Laura McGarrett.

"Commander, we've finally cut open the container. You may want to come take a look, because it ain't a pretty sight."

"Couldn't imagine it to be." He hung up before jogging the distance to the hangar. The pilot had moved the pelican onto the overhead cables so that it could be tended to. The phantom droned overhead as a pair of elites inspected the engines and plasma cannons.

Laura McGarrett, Rex Armes and a few others were around the closed container. All were wearing surgical masks. As he approached, the shorter ODST tossed him one for himself.

"You may want to put that on."

He didn't complain when smelling a faint foul stench that increased when he got closer to the container.

"Do I dare ask?"

"No sir. It's exactly what you think." Armes held one of the doors while Aegis pried open the second. Like a wall of toxic gas, the smell seemed to ignore his barrier and go up his nose. He forced back the bile in his throat as the sight slowly came to him. When he finally realized what he was looking at, all the thoughts on the stink had vanished.

Inside the container were dozens of dead, naked human bodies.

* * *

**Woah! That's nasty!**

**Enjoying it? I hope so. In addition, I finally got a job! Very excited!  
**


	10. Strike First III

**UNSC _Ballista_ over Gilgamesh**

**August 5, 2558**

"So is there more to the pirates than what we've been let on?" Drew asked as they entered the mess. It was nearly breakfast time so the mess hall was serving their specialty of French toast. Both the Blades commander and his partner helped themselves to food and sat down at one of the tables.

"From what our passenger described, the rune etched on the weapon was triangular on the outside and another series of delta shapes that connect into a split X shape. I'm not sure why she had encountered uniformed pirates with their own equivalent of ODST armor."

"Could Prith have any connection to all of this? Did she expose fewer secrets because she knew who we were?"

"Sofia was quick and got a towel over her face as the pelican touched down so that anything sensitive wasn't discovered. I talked to Adamant an hour ago. After he used the right medicine, Prith sang like a bird. Turns out that he's part of an even larger syndicate with more than just his group. ONI's been hunting this particular network ever since the war was even thought about ending. They've only been out of sight until recently, when pirate vessels under their operation were beginning to step up attacks on civilian ships. The shady group is headed by Nex Fel. Adamant had confirmed that his affiliation when we had scanned the symbols with Fel's group and the ones that Miss Adrian had matched."

"If I remember right," Drew inquired through a mouthful of toast. "Nex Fel is the younger brother of skirmisher terrorist Sav Fel."

"Correct. Sav Fel is the one currently in possession of the cruiser _Pious Inquisitor_. Which the UNSC Navy has been searching for since its disappearance in 2552."

"So then how do the pirates connect to all of the dead found inside the shipping container?"

"Simple really." Trip answered, discarding his plate in the dishrack. "My money's on a bunch of refugees. After the war on unglassed, but worlds that were torn apart by Covenant had multiple survivors on them. Now with the end of the war, many of these colonies cut off all ties with the UNSC and declared independence. Now some of the leaders in place aren't the nicest people. Refugees then go to a place where they make a deal with human traffickers.

"So kind of like smuggling in the nineteenth century."

"Exactly. Most of the dead were in their twenties, but ran over all ages and races."

Simply refugees of all kinds on the short end of the new independent colonies sought to get out of the clutches. The fee done by smuggler recruiters was tens of thousands of credits. Even the more wealthy people were not able to cough up that amount of money, so then they agreed to work off the debt by working for years. At first, many thought it would be worth it in the long run, but then the years would drag by and the smugglers deliberately kept the pay low enough to keep them inside their ring. The men would go into difficult labor tasks, especially when building on expanding colonies while the women were kept in prostitution. It was rare to see an entire debt paid off and those that managed to get out by working for years did not have pleasant memories.

Aegis and the Blades had likely just come across a shipment en route to a connecting port then on to distribution within the Inner Colonies. Although the pirates had likely boarded and were planning on selling the refugees back to their smugglers or another group. Either way, they had walked into the activities of a human trafficking echelon.

"Commander, it's Sofia. Can you come down to the medical wing?"

"On my way." Both Trip and Drew went separate ways, with the former to the medical area and the latter to command the ship from the bridge.

The door to Meredith Adrian's room was closed, but unlocked, so he took a second to peer inside. She was fast asleep on her side with her back turned to him. Shutting the door again, he arrived at Sofia's lab, with the doctor beside the latest and most advanced medical gear. On the table was a body covered in a white sheet. Vents had lessened the stench coming from the corpse, yet Trip still smelled the decay to be very strong.

"One of the dead humans?"

"No." Sofia reached over, grasping the sheet and removing it. "It's a pirate."

Death looked so natural for something so ugly. His eyes were bright yellow and frightening to look at even when dead. His teeth were razor sharp, able to cut through the flesh of its enemies and its muscular legs allowed it to run faster than even a sprinting Spartan. She had stripped him of whatever of the shredded armor remained and had made incisions in multiple places, the arm, torso, head, and legs. He had been killed by Aegis' SMG with six bullets passing through his stomach and two more that had entered his shoulder. Sofia had a petri dish that had two circular cones inside, most likely the bullets that did not exit his body.

"What have you learned so far?" Trip asked.

"What? That he's dead." She covered the body again.

"Well I'd consider that a fact given that you just did your dissection."

"My analysis diagnostics," She walked over to a four thousand dollar machine that resembled a large tube going upwards. In the center was a study sample area where the machine would analyze samples and give data findings in just minutes. Not only was it for medical purposes, but forensics as well. Aegis and the Blades had used it as a key to find a missing plasma stockpile a year ago by analyzing a plasma pistol dropped by one of their target's unggoy henchmen in an attempt to flee.

"The results had come back just a minute before you arrived. The pirate's own blood is highly acidic, something most jackals and skirmishers don't have. In addition to that, his gums are heavily rotted and his brain was on the verge of shutting down."

"That might explain why his aim was so bad." Aegis recalled, "During the raid, I was only shot a few times and most of the firing directed at me missed by feet. So what does this conclude?"

"The pirate had been exposed to extremely high levels of mercury. Humans often exhibit traits that I had described when exposed and I think that jackals might have a same diagnostic in the same condition."

"Who else did you check? How about the victim's orignis?"

"I gave a look at three other pirates who displayed similar, but varying levels of toxicity and I examined one of the immigrants, but she was clean of any poisoning. As for the other origins of the smuggled, they were like a mini college cultural club. Four of them were Asian, three African, Five of them Caucasian, one of them Pacific Islander and I haven't examined the rest yet."

Aegis had a glimmer of light stirring in his eyes, "Great. We just stumbled onto pirates who cherish diversity in their own ranks and smuggled goods. Well maybe we can track the mercury source and find the pirate's lair."

"Logic." Sofia smiled, stripping off her gloves and disposing of them. "I assume our patient is doing well seeing how you checked up on her?" She had emphasized the last part of the sentence.

Aegis' eyes hardened, but it wasn't enough to keep a slight red tint on his face. "Or rather that she doesn't want to talk. Either way, I think she wants off this rust bucket."

"Okay, so what's the ETA on the charter shuttle?"

"We're going to drop her off in Fort Liberty," That was Gilgamesh's second largest city with over five million people. "Then we'll restock and hopefully Dan's cracked something in the ship's black box and Dan's decrypting of our mystery ship so that we can finally put a stop to this operation." Just thinking about it made his blood boil and he felt like erupting his anger like a composite volcano.

"Putting this on the gamers huh?" Sofia always knew when the two of them were playing online games.

"Everyone's gotta do their part." Aegis took his departure, leaving Sofia to clean up her autopsy. He headed towards the hangar in preparation when he saw Vaal Talam with other crew members also waiting. He held a bucket of some sort and was trying to get the small spoon inside his mouth. He couldn't help but smile as the small utensil slipped out of his fingers and hit the floor, splattering a pale liquid all over. He growled in frustration, trying to use his fingertips to grasp the handle.

"Vaal, what the hell?" Trip jogged over to him when the sangheili wordlessly tossed him another tub with a spoon. He had been eating premium vanilla ice cream. Looking around, he saw even more of the crew with their own frozen delights. There was no need to wonder why; Sofia needed room in the freezer for all the pirates and victims.

* * *

**I think Vaal needs some lessons on how to eat soup or things with a spoon. Now that the Blades know who they're after, all they have to figure out how they're going to conduct it! Please review.**


	11. Need Answers I

**Metsker Steel Works**

**Outskirts of Misrata, Flint**

**August 5, 2558**

The peaceful sight of Misrata vanished as the R-220 vulture shuttle weaved through the clear airspace over the sprawling metropolis. Inside the cool air conditioned cabin, Ryan Weld nervously shifted around. He had preferred that he met and discussed terms with Metsker's head in the highrise above Misrata. Instead, the reply message insisted that they met at the location of the largest steel works outside the city.

During the end of the Human-Covenant War, Flint was under protest to break ties to the UNSC in hopes of avoiding the Covenant's wrath. Begrudgingly, they obliged, giving Flint independence in 2542.

Weld had developed a fear of flying in small aircraft for years after crisscrossing several rebel territories in small ships to avoid UNSC patrols. He would have decided to take a car despite awareness of Misrata's infamous road safety records. He gladly accepted when the Metsker director offered to fly him in via his personal civilian version of the vulture gunship. Reserved to only whoever could afford the multimillion dollar shuttle, it could carry a healthy amount of passengers and cargo, being stripped of its weapons. Special ones could act as personal transports for colonial governors with added armor to protect against anyone who happened to dislike their policies and own a gun at the same time.

He stared out the plastasteel window, watching the paradise of a jungle start to fall away into several highways that extended to the unseen skyscrapers of Misrata. It was hard to imagine that Flint had such a rush to modernize their economy now no longer in the union of the UNSC. Misrata was the capital of Flint and its second largest city after Cainepolis on the continent's other side. Now after being separate from the UNSC for sixteen years, the metropolis was laden with poverty, gridlocked traffic, crime and corruption. Today happened to be a relatively clear day over the city, Misrata's smog was well known. Later, Weld would find out that the UNSC's knowledge of the colony's instability was bad enough to send nearly seven hundred military advisors in Misrata and another thousand in Cainepolis to train the Colony's Republic of Flint military to fight their war against insurgent groups in the rural areas.

The pilot brought the vulture down to a lower altitude and Weld sighed, now the oasis out of sight. He looked forward, with his jaws nearly gaped at the enormous size of downtown Misrata. At least a hundred and fifty skyscrapers seemed to disappear in the low hanging clouds. All around it were smaller buildings that tried to compare themselves, but the effort was futile. Craft flew around like flies hanging out at an animal carcass.

As the vulture now headed west to the outskirts, Weld now saw a totally different sight that made even the toxic air city look pleasant to look at. A massive fleet of ships lay in irregular formations. The derelicts were all shadows of their former selves. Most of the dead vessels were freighters, although there were commuter ships and others of every description. Even a scrapped UNSC corvette was inside, much less corroded than the civilian ones around her.

Further inside the yards, Weld finally got to marvel at the entire operation that Metsker was doing. Not only were they creating steel, but also most of it was from shipbreaking. The ships being torn up had small armies of workers that resembled ants. Flashes of light could be seen as the men cut, hacked, tore and basically took apart the ship until what remained of her were metal beams and sheets ready to go to the economic booms of the Outer Colonies.

Finally, with the aid of a ground crewman, the vulture settled onto the landing pad. The pilot set the engines to idle and opened the side hatch that extended into stairs. He handed Weld off to a driver of a sedan who had arrived a minute earlier to retrieve him. The driver looked a little surprised that he did not have a suitcase, Weld did not want to be in Misrata a second longer than necessary and he had his briefcase with him. His luggage for the trip was in the hotel that he booked the night at. Once the sedan's tires started rolling, the vulture took to the skies again, heading towards downtown. It had taken a while for his hearing to come back to him, but when it did, he was assaulted with rattling, screeching and clanking that seemed to permeate even his inner thoughts. In front were four enclosed buildings, one of which a horrible shrieking noise emitted from. Weld found his teeth gritting hard and was relieved when the driver handed him some ear protectors. Gratefully flipping them on his head, it did little to help, but he could clear his eyes of tears. To his amusement, the workers on the ships didn't even pause at the noise. Some weren't even wearing any ear protectors.

"I'm sorry." The driver said from the front seat. "We are very used to it."

"To what?"

"That was the enormous ship saw." He said as they loped through highway traffic before getting off at a ill fated ramp next to the closest of the large quartet of hangars.

The driver handed Weld to another worker, who gave him a hard hat to help protect his head along with the ear guards. Once they entered a small metal chamber inside the large building, he flipped a switch. The elevator was illuminated by the spinning orange light on top as it ascended to the top of the hangar. While the view wasn't as impressive as flying in, Ryan was still amazed at the scale of Metsker's operation. The hangar was nearly as long as the eye could see, with machines of every shape and size alongside the edges, all designed to break or cut through metal.

One object dominated the very center, the ship saw. What could be seen of the blade towered several heights over the two workers tending to the massive rigid edge. No doubt that was the origin of the horrendous noise earlier.

The doors streamed in a beam of light as the worker directed him across the catwalk to meet the director. He was not there yet, so Weld took some time to look at the ship, an old tanker that was built in the 2500s being brought in by a score of winch cables and tow aircraft.

"You must be Ryan Weld." A voice called from his right. The former Insurrectionist turned around.

The Metsker Steel Works director was just as his dossier had said. However much more was to him than what met the eye. Karl Bruce, born under a different name had raised himself from an Outer Colony slum apartment. He had used his hulk size and intimidation for black market deals and did not have his first legit job until being twenty four when he purchased interest in an Eridanus import/export company supplying the rebellion around TREBUCHET, when the UNSC launched a massive operation to eradicate the rebels once and for all. It was then when he realized that the Eridanus rebels were bound to lose their holdout against the UNSC imperialists in 2513. He had then shifted his interests to secure export rights to export timber, titanium, steel and concrete to Reach, Eridanus II, New Corsica and Epsilon Eridani IV. He had purchased his own fleet of ships to haul his goods to the colonies, among four of the fastest growing.

Nearly every operation of business that Bruce had gone into had an illegal angle to it. When the UNSC had triumphed against the Eridanus Separatists, he had constructed the CAA building with inadequate materials, which was subsequently blown by sympathizers in retaliation. Another accident occurred on Eridanus II when his freighter's cargo of wood and composite material detonated after being offloaded and paid for. So as long as his wealth continued growing, Karl Bruce did not give any thought to how or where his wealth originated.

"You have quite an impressive facility here." Weld spoke, still taking it in, trying to avoid Bruce's snake eyed stare.

"It's the only one like it on this side of the galaxy." He laughed, a hearty roar, "The new ship saw was installed two years ago. The saw's metal is the strongest industrial grade, but even advanced titanium carbon steel will wear out."

"So how many ships can you cut with the saw before it wears out?"

"About ten." Bruce replied, reaching for a cigarette and lighting it. Weld didn't tell him it was in front of a no smoking sign, but the director didn't seem to care. "We have a technician that replaces the saw, he's known as the dentist."

Weld got the joke, but made no effort for any humor out of it.

"It was a brilliant investment. Now we can dissect a ship in two days instead of a week. Multiple clumsy workers off my hands, value of steel going up, price of scrap ships going down, it pays itself off. Very expensive in the short run, but quite profitable as it goes on."

The Klaxxon resonated as the saw began slowly spooling up. Bruce and Weld snapped their ear protectors on as a pair of hydraulic pressers clamped the tanker. The worker manning the saw controls off to the right at the middle catwalk guided a stick. When the saw reached its required speed, the man shifted it forward. The quickly rotating teeth then began biting with tremendous force into the keel. The sound bounced throughout the entire room as the blade began to glow a dull red from the friction. Two other workers fired streams of water onto the spinning blade to prevent it from overheating. The cool water instantly went into vapor, shrouding the area in a dense steam and a horrible smell of burned metal filled the air.

"Very impressive." Weld repeated once the saw powered down and retracted, turning back to Bruce.

"So is the sophistication of things. Anyway, what is it that your banker friends wanted to discuss with me?"

"Can we do it in your office?"

"Of course." Bruce led the way back to the elevator, where they descended down and headed to the cluster of corporate buildings in front. Unlike the hangar that Weld had just toured, the other three massive buildings and their ramps were absent of any activity. Other than a few older F99 drones, there weren't even any ships stored.

They entered the tallest building and waited for the elevator to stop at the top floor. Inside provided a much cooler contrast to the warm humid air that had Weld sweating despite being only five minutes outside. Bruce offered a drink which he declined, opting for some bottled water instead. The director's office was pristine with models of some of his favorite scrapped ships as well as pictures with local Flint celebrities. Bruce had taken some rum and was already on his second bottle by the time Weld opened his case and presented the documents.

"These are our projected demands for next year. Is it possible for you to meet them?"

Bruce put aside the halfway done rum and studied the pages. "Another thousand by next week? You're increasing?"

"It's disease season, we expect the worst to explode."

"Okay." For the next hour they discussed how the plan was put into motion. When he had finished, Weld was certain that Bruce knew what they had wanted out of him in exchange for his share. He bid his goodbye before Bruce arranged a car to escort Weld back to the hotel. While inside, Weld verified on his datapad of his three flights that would start the next day to get back to his base for a report before returning back to Flint.

Bruce's secretary informed him that Weld had left his compound. He nodded, dismissing her and heading back down to the ground level. This time, he walked towards the second hangar, giving a slight wave of his hand to the unseen eye on the top. Had Weld looked further up when he saw the hangars, he would have made out a single skirmisher sniper keeping the crosshairs of his beam rifle trained on the back of his head. The hand gesture told the sniper that he was alone and not posing a threat.

Opening a side door to the large closed hangar, Bruce slipped inside. The vast room was dimly lit, since the ship inside was complete. Taking a very short time to construct parts and then assemble the craft in secrecy, the three other hangars held what Bruce never showed to anyone except his recipients and his hired guns. Only highly seasoned workers were allowed to enter the perimeters and less than two hundred had been involved in the construction of the project. The sensitive nature of his work was only truly known by his partner, skirmisher pirate lord Nex Fel and his sons and daughters.

Nex Fel had been on the bridge of the ship when Bruce delivered his data. He was currently in contact with his son Jor. Jor Fel was the head of Nex's main pirate groups.

"Father, we haven't heard from the _Righteous_ or the _Dubious Repose_ for nearly two days. Both of their shipmasters should have at least checked in by now." Jor started out with the situation following a brief exchange in pleasantries.

"Who was the one leading the two?"

"On this trip it was Ceb."

Nex was not one to be easily nervous, however the loss of one of his best still set him on edge. Ceb had originally preyed on Jiralhanae controlled Unggoy breeding ships. He was known to be reckless, charging headfirst, but knew when to retreat. The pirate lord kept a tight boundary on his interests, if Ceb failed to check in for at least two days, he had to expect the worst.

"My son, there are others eager to fill his position. In the meantime, tell the groups to keep a sharp eye out for any mention of a thwarted attack in the region he was operating at." Anyone who would have beaten Ceb and his crew would want to tell about it.

"No such reports have been released."

"Understood. Karl Bruce had just met with Ryan Weld. Their list of requirements is just what I had expected."

"Does Bruce know the scope of our plan?" Jor's tone had a hint of concern in his voice.

"No and neither does Renaud and his slave Weld."

"Very well." He sounded very pleased. "Your men's loyalty is absolute. Weld and his imperialists will never know what hit them. Soon humans will know who the true pirates are. They will be destroyed before they realize it."

"Excellent Jor. Remember that you can continue to get berries from a dying plant, but none from a dead one. Weld, Renaud and their group shall suffer, but we will devastate them enough to feast for a long time to come."

* * *

**Another mystery ship!? What's next!?**

**Thanks for reading and a special shout out to all my reviewers! You give my writing purpose!**


	12. Need Answers II

**Fort Liberty, Gilgamesh**

**August 6, 2558**

Nearly twelve hours had passed since the crew had gotten up at the crack of dawn to bring Meredith Adrian. During the Ballista's return to colony Gilgamesh, Leah Roush had called for a charter dropship to head down to the surface. An associate had arrived to conduct the retrieval and judging from both of their body language gave away that the representative and Meredith had never crossed paths before. He had introduced himself as William Byrde and had a heavily reserved persona, but thanked Trip for saving Meredith anyway.

She was obviously grateful, giving Aegis a generous kiss on the cheek before being guided to an ambulance summoned by her escort. Before Byrde had the chance to shut the door, she stopped him, looking over at the commander. He knew the look on her face and what was about to follow.

"The other night, I remembered something during our first conversation."

Aegis stopped and looked back at her, his expression wasn't overly friendly or pleased all of a sudden.

"I had asked if you were the navy, but you responded with something like heading a mercenary group. What was that all about?" He saw Byrde lean out to hear his response.

Aegis at first had no idea how to respond, so he simply blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "I lied."

She definitely did not take the revelation well; crossing her arms over her chest and didn't need to say anything to demand his explanation.

Aegis actually smiled for the first time since their interaction at the infirmary. "Yeah, you heard right. I don't think you would trust me if I told you that I was the captain of a titanium hauling freighter with the minimum rescue equipment that we had."

"So then how did you find her in space?" Byrde's tone was evident with accusation.

"I suppose it was just luck. We had our radar being fixed and I guess it worked when we detected the wreck." Both Meredith and Byrde nodded, however likely not entirely convinced. Aegis was certain that neither of them were what he thought of them to be.

"Then I guess I should ask you to thank your techs." Meredith had the paramedics set her inside the ambulance to go back to wherever they had come from.

Aegis, Vasili and two of the sangheili that they selected earlier were on their own for transportation around the massive city of Fort Liberty. Rather than rent a car or find a train, they strolled towards the downtown area where Drew Rayson had reserved four beds in a hotel under one of the fraud front companies that the Blades often masqueraded. From then on it became a waiting game for a call that didn't come soon enough. The sangheili bided their time between the hotel's giant fitness center and meditating on the beds while Vasili went out to tour the city. He had returned to the room still seeing Aegis walking back and forth in the room as if a programmed drone, just like when he had left.

"So are you sure that your coughing earlier was from the hit on the head you gave yourself?"

Trip scoffed, "That was from the blackened deer that we had, not from stress."

"If you say so." Vasili rolled his eyes, before going back to tweak on his sidearm. It was just a habit of his to clean his weapons. More than once had he been undercover and in an intense predicament with his weapon less than good condition.

Aegis stood and went to the window, the curtains were drawn so with a flick of his hands filled the room with dim light. Dark clouds began to cover the city and within a few minutes later, fat drops of rain began to sprinkle down on the window. A memory came drifting back to his head, specifically when he had seen all the dead inside the shipping box.

He was only eight or nine at that time and they had been coming back from his uncle and cousin's house in the nearby city of Faris and were on the highway back to his home city of Mykonos. His dad was driving, his mom was riding shotgun and he of course was in the back with an oversized seatbelt on top of his chest. She had shouted a warning to him seconds after he had applied the brake, sending the car to a skidding halt. Immediately she had turned back to check on how he was in the back, fortunately unharmed. The sudden stopping of the car wasn't enough to activate his seatbelt's electronic safety locks, but his mother acted as if he had been thrown out of the car.

Traffic had inched forward following the braking drama. Trip had been squirming to see outside the low part of the window. He had seen it for the first time when he was by an MLX 2530 sports car. The newest version was among the slickest looking vehicles on the road and was highly coveted, being nearly two point six million credits. To this day, he had vowed to drive one of those cars when he retired from the Blades.

"So you know what color you're getting?"

"Bronze." Trip answered automatically, before realizing that he had been telling the story out loud. He let out an embarrassed moan, burying his hands into his face. The tale seemed to pique the interest of the sangheili warriors, because they had halted their meditation and sat upright with Vasili to listen. As much as he wanted this particular memory to stay buried, the subconscious was telling him to finish and not leave the other three hanging.

"So after what seemed like forever, we had found the accident site. A smaller car had caused one of the semi trailer trucks to swerve and crash. The trailer had somehow disconnected and lay on its side. There was a police hornet over the site and only one cruiser. The single officer was the only one there helping with the victims of the crash. There were what, maybe sixty concealed smuggled people inside when the container had toppled. The officer had already locked away the truck driver inside his car and was back to helping the wounded with the help of some of the better off smuggled. Anyway, we soon picked up speed and left the accident behind."

Vasili's expression hardened. Like Aegis, he had also been on track of smuggling during his days at ONI.

"Nobody in the car spoke for a while, and then mom had begun sobbing. My dad kept his eyes on the road, but he had spoken softly enough to show that even he was shaken from the scene. I don't think that after what he had been through, nothing had broke much.

"Trip, no matter whom or what anyone tells you, there is evil in this galaxy. The only thing it needs to win is for good people to not do anything.

"It would be years later before I lost my father and I had talked with my mother about that day again. She had explained that the Jovian moons were a hotspot for people smuggling. She told me that the driver was convicted for all of them and then executed."

"So when you saw all those bodies."

"I was right back in that car." He finished, lapsing the room into silence.

"So what did your father do before you lost him?" One of the sangheili asked.

"Staff Sergeant in the UNSC Marines. Killed in the Battle of New Harmony by a group of wraiths that hit his convoy. Before that, he believed that nothing was more evil in the universe than the Covenant."

Before Vasili or the sangheili could respond, Trip's comlink vibrated and buzzed. Wordlessly he picked it up and said his name into the line.

"Hey commander, it's Sofia."

"Hey, what's up?"

"After another autopsy of one of the Caucasian smuggled, I think I may have a lead on where they had started their journey. They originated right from a town called Sabtro near Victoria's largest city, Kirup. Another thing I found was a bit of a paper journal that somehow managed to avoid destruction when we had boarded."

"So are you able to get a glimpse at where the smugglers are? How does this connect to the pirates?"

"I'm unclear on how the smugglers and pirates relate to one another. The diary is written by an eastern European man named Vladan. He was traveling with a brother and several blood relatives. All of them were handled by a smuggler recruiter named Andres, who by Vladan's counts had a South American origin. They were all promised to pay this Andres back once they reached their destination at Reach or somewhere starting with an R."

"Anything else?"

"Nada. He talked about bringing his family along, but not until he got sustainable conditions."

"So maybe if we can't backtrack the pirates or smugglers, maybe we can get a hold on the cargo." Aegis motioned to Vasili when he said this. The other Spartan already knew what the commander had in mind.

"I'll call you back later. Get Tyler to hail me once he's got anything on our mystery ship." He cut the connection.

"Victoria? When I saw this people smuggling, I knew something was coming."

The colony of Victoria was another world that was plagued by separatism, black market and things the UNSC definitely did not appreciate. It was one of the loosest controlled and many terrorism acts committed against the UNSC governors were rivaling the destruction at Mamore and Venezia, also Insurrection controlled worlds.

"Can you try it?"

Vasili shook his head, "Since the coup in 2540 after the colony's partial glassing? Probably not. I barely managed to escape the clutches of their police. All of my names have been on their red alert watch lists and I can name two generals who are after my head and wouldn't be happier if I set foot on Victorian soil again."

"So no?"

"Well, I suppose so. I have a final ID that indicates that I live on Sigma Octanus and my occupation as a street maintenance worker. That'll be all I need to get in, but I'll have to scrap the ID once I've passed through and assume a new identity to become one of them again. I'll get my courier to meet me here and then I'll catch the flight at the spaceport to Kirup."

"Sofia reported that the origin was from Sabtro, so you'll need to make your way over there once you've landed."

"Sabtro is home of one of the generals after me." Suvorov countered.

"Or we can try our other options."

"No." Vasili's eyes gleamed like dull fire from the storm outside, which had now turned to heavy rain. "We need answers and will waste time unless Tyler finds our ship and the pirate base. If I have to go, this is the time to do so."

Trip extended his hand out to the other Spartan. Vasili looked a little confused, and then shook it.

"All right. Make it happen."

"Yes commander." Vasili turned, gathering his things and leaving the room. As the door shut, Trip had a dreaded feeling that he may not see one of his best friends ever again.

"How about we go for some dinner?" He asked the two sangheili, but got no response. Looking up, he saw them completely still sitting up with eyes closed. Both had been back to meditating since Sofia had called.

* * *

**Maybe if Vasili can get to Victoria, he may find some answers! But there's a reason why he escaped when he was undercover in the first place!**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you all give my writing purpose!**


	13. Need Answers III

**Fort Liberty, Gilgamesh**

**August 7, 2558**

With Vasili gone from the Blades on his own undercover mission and the sangheili recalled back to the _Ballista_, Trip was stuck inside Fort Liberty until Dan Tyler had come up with a lead. So he spent two days touring a city that was much unenjoyably large for him. After never being to Fort Liberty before, he vowed never to go again. What he expected was a large city with sprawling highways and short buildings. Instead, he got crowds that would defy imagination, a nexus of subways and skyscrapers that seemed to fade as they got higher. The cranes alongside them were just as big, numbering in the triple digits of stories. The city had two space elevators to ferry traffic between the atmosphere and its orbital shipyard.

His feeling of powerlessness was even further amplified about Suvorov's absence. He had left already, rendezvousing with his contacts to get him inside Victoria again. He called the _Ballista_ from a disposable comm device once he had arrived in Kirup, but then tossed it afterwards. While they were common in the cities, he would instead be going into the backcountry, likely a small town in the densely forested colony.

Aegis felt his own comlink vibrate, although couldn't hear the tune that rang. He slid it free from his pocket holder and opened the line, finding a bench in a park to talk. The park was one of few quiet zones around the giant city. "Aegis."

"Trip, it's Vaal. You eager to end your little shore leave?"

"So Tyler found something." Aegis made no attempt to hide the excitement in his voice.

"I believe that he would explain this to you much better than I could possibly. Putting him through now."

Aegis took out a small pad of paper and a black pen that he brought with him to take notes if he was away from the hotel.

"Hey boss, how's Liberty treating you?"

"All cold stares and warm weather. Vaal told me that you found something."

"You bet!"

"So what is our mystery ship? A carrier, salvage barge?"

"Neither." Dan Tyler drew in a breath as he scrolled through his newly acquired information on his computer. "She's headed towards New Legaspi on Mars. Her name is the _Anije_. I did a cross reference with her name, which means ship in Albanian. She was built with the means to become an entire portable drydock for wounded UNSC warships and large freighters. It stands to reason whoever owns and operates the _Anije _is definitely in league with the pirates. With the drydock in their possession, nearly any ship, human, Covenant or otherwise could be snatched at their discretion. The ship simply swallows her victim like one of those python snakes and then continues on her way."

He could easily picture how they pulled it off; the drydock was large enough to fit a UNSC cruiser inside. Once the vessel was under pirate control, they would regroup with the larger ship in a hidden place, when nearby eavesdroppers were out of the way and when on the darker side of a planet, the ship speeds would match as the captured vessel would be reeled in by magnetic conduits inside the massive chamber. Other clamps would steady her as she entered the hold and once she did, the doors would shut. Unless a drone was sent inside, nobody would ever know that inside the hold was the largest bounty in one of the most aspiring pirate rings in history.

"So why don't they just dismantle it once it's inside, they'd have all the time they want to refit them and sell them under a different name for even more profit?"

"No clue what they'd possibly do with that. I didn't think of it, but it makes sense, especially when money is the name of the game."

Aegis nodded, "Nice work. Send the pictures of what she looks like to my datapad. By the way, who owns the _Anije_?"

"Oh they're all a bunch of hollow corporations. Astute Orient Shipping, Ajax Trading, Pitch Limited,"

He stopped short, hand aching from writing at a rapid pace. "Pitch sounds like a mining term. Since the pirates had mercury in them found by Sofia, maybe the two are connected."

"Commander, I haven't started digging into the shell companies yet, so I thought you wanted to know about our mystery drydock right away. These pirates are no amateurs, even for kig-yar, instead of the typical hyena scavenging; they're hunting more like lions with force and fear."

"Well thanks anyway. You've still got a lot more work to do." Aegis cut the connection. He stood up, but remained where he was, now with an objective in mind.

* * *

**Time to go find the Anije and see what's going on! Sorry this is a short chapter, I promise the next one will be action packed and longer!**


	14. Need Answers IV

_**Anije**_

**Unknown location, heading to New Legaspi, Mars**

**August 8, 2558**

With no alarms raised this far into the mission, the four Blades began to question if it was intentional that they hadn't been discovered yet or nobody really knew what they were there.

Laura McGarrett held her breath as a pair of human crew members of the _Anije_ walked down the hallway, turning left to another of the nexus of tunnels around the enormous ship's hold. They had not seen what she had been holding yet, due to the chamber being dark. If something had little light in there, they were probably hiding something.

Joining the team after a hostage crisis that the secret group had made their elaborate and awe inspired entrance, Laura had also been into ONI like the commander and several of the current Blades. Although not as decorated, she knew how to hold her own and more than earned the respect of the three sangheili that she was leading.

"Grapple check." Since jetpacks were expensive and noisy, she had chosen to grapple once they were inside the gravitational zone again. All the elites had been trained in scaling without using their jetpacks, which one, a former ranger had to adjust to. The elite wielding a carbine produced a long cylindrical device from his belt and measured the top catwalk.

"Seventy two feet." She nodded and he squeezed the trigger, launching the hook over the railing. His partner handed over the cable, securing the line; she was the first one up, using her feet to quickly scale the wall. Rak was right behind her, followed by the other two warriors.

The main hold of the _Anije_ appeared deserted with no sentries posted at any main areas. A large object was covered in one of the dock's two holds. The other hold was cluttered with parts and what seemed to be a half assembled set of engines. As they approached, the material felt like stitched plastic fibers. Laura poked it with her gloved hand, it did not give, more of a solid feeling.

One of the sangheili ignited an energy dagger on his wrist and approached the fabric, about to cut it open. Laura held up a hand when the blade was about to kiss the flammable covering. Wordlessly she used her hands to indicate different instructions.

Two of the elites nodded and had headed off to collect the manifest as well as any records of the navigation logs. She and the sangheili sniper Rak infiltrated the higher hold onto the highest catwalk for monitoring the enormous hold.

The ledge was higher than Laura's jumping skill, so Rak stood underneath as he gave her a boost up. He was much heavier than she expected when leaning down and pulling him up. When he scrambled the rest of the way, her left arm was sore. She hoped that it wouldn't deter her aim.

"We've got contacts." Rak motioned forward to a pair of skirmishers at a T-shaped part of the giant catwalk. They were at the intersection of where they needed to go for observation.

With his confirmation, she let out a single shot from her sniper rifle. With a fat suppressor fixed on the end, it was barely audible when it buried itself in the back of the pirate's neck. His partner's armor shattered when a second bullet went through the back of his skull.

"Clear." Both Blades members stashed the bodies on top of one side where only someone passing above would be able to see them.

"This looks like an optimal observation point." Rak gestured to the catwalk.

"That's what I had thought." Laura set herself on the ground with Rak beside her. She had set a small drone at the catwalks end to watch for patrols coming their way and to take necessary action. They trained their scopes across what could be seen from the hold. Currently, a ship that was obscured flashed with ghostly shadows on the wall. Someone was working on it.

For nearly two hours the snipers observed patrols, formations and anything out of the ordinary. Judging from the other team's report, the entire bridge crew was humans while all the militia guards were skirmishers. They had slipped easily using their camo to retrieve the ship's voyage plan and en route back to their observation point.

Rak's signal winked yellow. There was a contact.

To their right was a pair of skirmishers on patrol, lazily walking with plasma rifles drawn. Neither of them seemed to be expecting anything, but both snipers were on high alert.

Laura's hand touched the M6S pistol in her holster, the outline of the pirates was vague and there was too much light for use of the VISR that came from the ceiling lights. Checking her time, it was nearly six in the morning, however there was no way from the absence of daylight. However the patrol was probably one that occurred twice every hour. Both of them, skirmishers by the posture and movements had large bulky armor that was painted white, hiding their paces in a silvery domed helmet. Their equipment screamed military, so she had to guess that they were mercenaries paid to guard whatever they were hiding.

Laura and Rak ducked into an adjacent catwalk with crates and remained still until they passed. She noticed the same symbol on one of the skirmisher's shoulder guards that the team was trying to decipher.

"We have a visual on the ship being uncovered." One of the sangheili whispered into the channel.

"Pipe it through to me and the ship."

A moment later, a second smaller screen appeared on her HUD as the elite observed through his recorders. Groups of skirmishers with jetpacks were now scrambling over the fabric, removing the sides. The ship underneath was something never seen before.

Seeming to have a hybrid of human and Covenant designs, the ship sported a bulbous front appearance with a silver shell that widened at mid-length and narrowed again as it came to the engines. It was approximately a thousand feet long and three hundred wide. The human made engines were built in over a large lip that covered them from any aerial attack from above. She widened out at the middle, with two fifty foot tall and wide hangar bays to complement smaller dropships and boarding craft. Several point defense turrets lined both sides of the hull, but from the view, no longer range offensive weapons were visible.

It wasn't just any pirate vessel; it was one of their motherships.

"Ballista, this is Laura, are you reading?"

"I read you loud and clear." Drew's voice cracked through, "I've seen enough footage to know that they're pretty dark enough. At least we know that the_ Anije_ is involved in this piracy conspiracy. The question is that why put your stored mothership here?"

"Because this is where it's assembled." Rak had cut in, "Although the bulk of their ships are assembled somewhere else, they come here to be finalized and ready for launch. That way, if their main base of construction is compromised, all they have to do is move it."

An alarm sounded through the hold. Laura's heart nearly jumped out of her chest, but turned with her pistol aimed down the corridor. Looking outside, she saw a group of massive overhead cranes lower their cables and grasp the massive ship, lifting her off of the structures they had used to keep her off the floor. The cables reeled the ship closer to them, which was the closer of the two massive doors that were on both sides of the drydock.

The two skirmisher guards were now laughing, a low pitched sound and one of them leaned over with his helmet off to let something get spat from his mouth. He rocked back in shock, nearly getting saliva all over his face, letting out a screech.

He had spotted the dead bodies.

Laura and her elites had only a couple of seconds before one of them could raise an alarm. It must have been standard procedure because one of them vanished into the darkness while the other produced light from somewhere on their armor and scanned the area. If one saw something, the other was to alert the others.

"Take him." She whispered, sprinting after the skirmisher. The metal clanked every time her armored foot hit the floor. At 121 pounds, plus the weight of her gear, she was still a good seventy less than what her target was. Unfortunately, the armor seemed to hamper with the skirmisher's impressive running abilities. Her pistol in hand, she fired a shot. It went wild, hitting off of a support column with a metallic ping. He brought his weapon to aim, Laura crouched before he could fire, cycling three more bullets out of the chamber. He stopped running until she was a good ten feet from her. Before she could do anything else, he raised his arms and puffed his chest out in a rebellious gesture. Laura saw a seal in the armor's back plating slide away to reveal safety charges. Upon the user's request, the armor would be vaporized by nearly any explosive. It seemed to be what he was thinking as well, from having a lit plasma grenade onto his body.

Laura shielded her face as the detonation would've blinded anybody. Causing the nearby thin columns to snap and the entire catwalk started to dip down a good fifty feet. The blast had tossed Laura at the end and she gripped the metal floor as best as possible, but it remained slick and she found herself sliding to the edge. With a scream of surprise, she finally gripped a pole that stuck out in front of the catwalk. For a second, she felt her body continue its descent and then felt something jerk her upwards, with a firm grasp on her arm. The rescuer dragged her upward until she lay on the flat portion of the catwalk.

Laura smiled into the face of Rak, who had dashed to her rescue. "Shit, that was close. I thought I was for a second going,"

"For one second, you were."

"The other guard?"

"Sleeping with a nice cut in his head. Saw his companion you were chasing activate his fail safes and was about to turn his on when I got him."

"I think we have enough evidence." Laura allowed the elite to help her to her feet. "Team two, bring the voyage plans to the exfil point and we'll jump the airlock back home." They had stored thruster packs in the emergency airlock for a quick jump off.

The _Ballista_ only had a short window to track the pirate mothership before it vanished into slipspace. Unfortunately, Drew couldn't leave his teammates behind, so he unfortunately had to let it slide. Laura and Rak met up with the two other sangheili and they silently exited the ship, just as quietly as they boarded.

The mothership exited slipspace some time later, approaching an identical drydock approximately three light years away from the Sol System. Just like the _Anije_, the drydock's innards were obscured from outside eyes. She was heading in the opposite direction, towards the Outer Colonies. The hold would have been airtight save for the circulators that had been bolted to the upper sides of the vessel. This time though, there were no ships inside, even if someone managed a look. The cover was fabric over the lower part of the floor. The filters inside were covering up a raw stench and a deadly secret.

* * *

**So there was a pirate corvette (mothership) inside the drydock! Good to see that some of the things are starting to come together! So what happened to Vasili? Next chapter will be around him.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! You give my writing purpose!**


	15. Need Answers V

**Sabtro, Victoria**

**August 9, 2558**

Vasili's arrival into Victoria went off without error. Customs waved him through after a simple glance at his fake identity. They had only done a brief search of his bags, but didn't suspect much since he was a worker coming to look at the construction sites expanding around the Kirup metropolis.

He had spent his first day wandering around the city, being away for nearly seven years meant that he had to accustom himself again. He knew the other languages spoken were Russian and English. Although he was fluent in his native language, his voice had no accent, but rather a bland sound that would be nearly entirely foreign to a Russian native to Victoria. To help, he often stood at the rail train stops and tuned in to the conversations around him, singling out the ones in Russian.

He couldn't believe the changes Kirup had underwent since he had left. The skyline was among the tallest on the planet. The air above buzzed with busy transports to their bustling destinations. Many people had datapads and chatter comm devices with quick and excited conversations carried over the latter. When night had fallen, the buildings and their even taller cranes became a dazzling show of light. Newly constructed on the north end of the city were several unique shaped buildings that were prestigious hotels that sheltered the military police guarded governmental district of Kirup. After moving to Reach when he was five, he had learned Russian and English during his childhood in his hometown of Vladivostok.

His melting into the Victorian society had gone seamlessly. After two days spent in the city, he checked out of his hotel, selling his empty suitcases and whatever else to a travel shop. The immigration papers had been flushed down his room's toilet and then he traveled to the mall to buy some commoner clothes. The cashier didn't give a second thought onto why he was wearing a business casual and purchasing garments not up to his standard. He ditched his suit, heading towards the industrial district of Kirup, a smog filled section that was an ugly sight to anyone with the view of the tall hotels. Instead of a jungle of vibrant warm colored clothing worn by the youth, it was now a dull sight to see older workers heading home at dusk, covered in a grayish brown. Factory funnels pumped smoke that had formed the horrid smog cloud. Now, he had torn his clothes and his worker shoes were scuffed thanks to a cinder block that he found in a construction lot.

Some of the poorer workers gave him odd looks, but nobody really singled him out for anything. At this point, he wasn't one of them, but probably not that far up the totem pole to be different.

Sabtro was a city that was populated in the ten thousand range. The richer area was bordering the highway that led back to Kirup's nightclub area, a bright skyline barely visible in the blurry air and the area where he was headed was at the outskirts of the city, where what remained of the forest still stood. He was now returning as a worker who had failed to find employment in the big city. He even had the mood to encourage others to believe the same. It had been his third day absent of a shower and his eyes were the pained look of despair and defeat. An elderly woman had sat next to him as the bus went into the city. She had told him that it was best if he returned to his family, as the city life wasn't for everyone. Fortunately she may have been hallucinating and if she could see clearly, it would be evident that Vasili was much younger than she expected.

The city was hosting election day, which Suvorov had seen before when undercover rooting out the insurrection that was now controlling Victoria. Since there was only one government party that was ruling, most of the voting in the "democratic" elections consisted of multiple candidates for the office in the same party, but with different policies. Since many of them agreed, there was maybe a maximum of three candidates for each office. Sometimes voters just had to hit the random box on the electronic pad and then deposit their vote, all under surveillance by the armed militia.

Since he would attract attention, he had to ditch a few more things. His dollar-shop comlink that he had carried was broken under his feet. The comlinks that people carried here were much cheaper and ironically more durable than the city counterparts that were talked and messaged upon by the obnoxious teenagers. Since the military would be on edge, he decided to wait underneath a sewer that ran over the open in one road that led to the winding trees that seemed to span forever beyond. His plan was to stay hidden until the military rolled off to their next area to overwatch the next biased election.

He lay down on the dirt concrete, just inches from the rushing water that emitted a horrible smell and was colored greenish. Lost in his own misery, he didn't even hear the voices until they were right on top of the bridge above.

"Of course." The voice was in English, coming from male and the accent sounded like Kirup.

"You sure know how to flatter a woman." Her voice was maybe a year younger and she had sounded like she was local.

"I know the perfect place Tatiana, just past these trees."

The girl, Tatiana laughed in response. Vasili knew that the two were heading to the small hotel he saw earlier on the outskirts to engage in sexual activities. He slunk from his hiding spot and observed the couple.

The man was a soldier, clad in his pristine uniform, an unknown model of a battle rifle slung on his back as his arm linked with Tatiana's. Her swagger in stepping suggested that she may have been intoxicated and drank a little more than usual booze at the party in her high school or college. That was probably where she had met the soldier boy.

Sure enough they had walked into one of the rooms without paying for their dues. Because he was a soldier, the fee was nonexistent, as if serving as intimidation was already enough. He waited until the checkpoint guards had ran off to assist the other troops in packing up the two machine gun nests that were manned to observe traffic from the forest highway. The group wouldn't leave until all of its soldiers were accounted for, the one about to get laid included. Moving out of his hiding spot, he crouch walked over to the side of the single story building stopping at the one that the two had gone through. She had locked the door behind them, preventing him from intruding by the front door. The window next to the door had light shining through it, since the sun was setting and he saw a pair of silhouettes on the wall. The soldier had pinned his partner and both had removed their leg clothes by now. Vasili nearly tripped on one of the cracks of the dipilidated concrete walkway and hit the wall. He braced himself ready to run, but the two inside were so caught up in him removing another article of clothing that they failed to notice his presence. He walked back to the window's side; the two were now gone from the wall and likely on the bed which was behind the wall that was in front of the door when one walked through. A series of stimulating moans and ruffling sheets kept on going, so he hid behind a few decorating bushes, avoiding being seen by the few other hotel guests that walked in and out. He was surprised that nobody had caught him as peeping tom.

Twenty minutes later, he checked on them again, now hearing silence inside indicating that both had fallen asleep. He was clear to head inside.

Pushing on the door, he felt the angle of the pins that kept it from swinging open. He shifted his weight on pulling upwards, pulling with unholy strength. The pin snapped free with a metallic bang and now the door minus its lock was shut. He had flinched from the breaking in case someone was alert.

The room's cream colored walls were chipped and in desperate need of a new coat. The floor was a dark green that was probably less tinted when it was laid out. The smell of something dank and mildew was getting stronger by the time he had crossed into the bedroom.

The bed was a queen size and the two lightly sleeping naked occupants had no idea that a stealthy Spartan had just infiltrated their room. The soldier's uniform was taken off in a rough manner and Vasili spotted the weapon leaning against the wall and slung the rifle over his shoulder. Resembling an old Belgian rifle called the FAL; it featured a scope that was probably the most advanced last century. A box magazine of twenty rounds sat in front of the trigger, in heavy contrast to the UNSC bullpup weapon style on most of their rifles. Using the balls of his feet, he crossed the front of the bed, careful not to wake them. Gathering all parts of the uniform he managed a small smile as his imagination of the soldier having to go back into town minus a uniform. The dog tags were wrapped around one of the bedpost, which he took as well. There was no doubt that the Victoria militia was already eager to roll off to the next town so his presence would already accelerate their departure.

Changing his plan, he no longer planned to interrogate the family that was discovered in the container. It was no use now, because they might have been killed by the pirate hitmen. His only option now was to go through the same processes that the group had gone through.

He silently shut the door and crossed the bridge over his sewer home back into town. After asking a man about a smuggler recruiter called Andres, he immediately froze up, ready to run. However Vasili knew the soldier tactics of intimidation. He aimed the rifle squarely at his chest and demanded it in a kindly, but also laden with menace type of voice. Knowing his life was in danger, the man shakily pointed out to the Untamed Serpent, which was a bar that was downtown. After thanking the man, Vasili nodded, insisting that he should leave before he changed his mind about shooting. He had already left, much to the relief and scrambling of his informant. He planned to confront andres about the smuggling and see what he could get from that. Unfortunately, the man had told him that Andres was difficult to impress and convince to take on a journey, so Vasili had to be something worth going for.

Slinging the dog tags over his neck and heading back into town, he had now found the ideal cover.

* * *

**Thanks for reading everyone! You all give my writing purpose!**


	16. Straight into Hell I

**UNSC **_**Ballista**_

**Unknown Location**

**August 11, 2558**

Aegis knew the type. The man on the other side of the screen was poorly dressed and took very little pride in his personal appearance. The absence of fidgeting only confirmed that it was not a disguise and somewhat disgusted him. With Dan Tyler indicating that the only company that owned the Anije was Metsker Steelworks, Aegis knew that they were his prime suspect. Being the largest exporter of Flint's steel and metal, they had grown exponentially well. However the representative that was his first contact when he had called for the shipbreaking services instantly shattered any positive image that anyone would have for the company.

File cabinets seemed to be bursting with papers. The desk was covered in papers and a half dozen datapads that had been smeared with fingerprints and faded cases. They looked old enough to be put in a computer history museum.

Trip Aegis now knew more about Karl Bruce and Metsker Steelworks than he had ever wanted. The net worth of Bruce, who was chairman of the company nearly three quarters of a billion. Bruce, his bovine faced wife and six children, four boys and two girls all lived in a seven hundred acre compound with the mansion large enough to accommodate them plus a small army of house workers. However only Bruce's sons were in charge of the illegal pirate corvette operation for Nex Fel and his band.

The idea was simple, he had contacted a scout representative from Metsker en route from Mars to Flint, portraying himself as a captain of a ship that he wanted scrapped and sold. His primary objective was to find out their illegal operations and see how much they were willing to scrap a ship Ballista's size.

"So Captain um…Davis." Trip had used the Davis name from Drew's engineer. "The records of your ship indicate that she was constructed in twenty five thirty, however the records indicate that there is no owner of the ship. It is apparent that you have no ownership of what you are trying to sell me."

During their initial meeting over the screens, with the respresentative at his Misrata office and Trip using his prop office in _Ballista_, he had attempted to pronounce the different name to the stealth frigate that Trip had listed, he had grown tired of the commander trying to correct him and thus began saying "your ship"

He maintained a lazy appearance, with a slightly bulging shirt that was missing a few buttons, courtesy of Drew, his hair was a greasy blond wig and he darkened his chin to make it look like it had been weeks since he'd last shaved.

If Bruce wanted Metsker's image to be one of a struggling worker, he certainly did a good job of it. Aegis could easily play the part of a bad luck type of captain.

"Please look under all of that." Aegis gestured on screen to the representative. He gave the commander a penetrating stare before leafing out the primary papers to look at the things below.

"That's right." Trip smiled slightly when the Metsker scout shot his head up in complete surprise. "She's carrying old steel beams that might be of use in your mills, all from New Legaspi. Now how about I propose a deal? You forget that she's been owned by someone else and I'll deny anything once they say that there is a multimillion credit fortune stocked in her holds."

"So how did you come to us at Metsker?" He asked, wiping a clear liquid off his chin that had pooled.

"People say many things, I can't recall who told me about it, but news spreads quick and can be uglier when it turns to conflict." He gazed back at the representative, his eyes giving the equal force that he had given earler. He had basically threatened to have authorities look inside the entire works if he continued to ask questions.

"I'm flattered that you have heard such notes about our company Captain Davis. I can see you having three hundred credits per ton for the hulk."

"That will not do." Aegis shot back, trying to end the negotiations and his lying. "I thought four hundred and fifty."

"Captain," The representative sighed, reacting as if Aegis had just insulted his wife. "Three hundred and seventy five is the maximum that I can go to break even."

"Personally I think you will be more than break even at that price. I know how valuable steel and titanium are from Flint and keep regular track of materials. So why not three hundred and seventy a ton and I can bring the vessel to the yard within the week."

The representative sighed, scratching his head and sitting back at his desk, the motion causing a handful of long staying sticky notes to fall off. "The hangars are full right now, but bring your vessel within the week and we will have room. Our facility shuts down for the day at precisely eight, so do not think about trying to get in afterwards."

"I'll be in Misrata in a couple of days, from there, we can take a look." Before the Metsker representative could reply, Aegis cut the connection.

In his cabin, Aegis shed his Captain Davis clothes and had just thrown on some shorts and a t-shirt when the door popped open. Settling in his leather chair, he watched the _Ballista_'s steward, Francois pull the silver cover off of a steaming dish of hyderabadi haleem and a pitcher of ice tea.

"Welcome back Captain." Since the dossier on Metsker was sent to his pad, Aegis had been delayed on getting back to the Ballista and had literally thirty seconds to get changed upon his arrival back on the ship. Ever since Meredith Adrian was whisked away at Gilgamesh, it had been nearly four days since he had been back. Francois was the only Blades member that had no combat background. Even the Blades' chef was a member of the UNSC Army before going to his true passion with cooking. He was also the only person to ever call Aegis "Captain"

"What's the latest?" Francois was always up to date on what little gossip spread around the ship. His interests were centered on both Dan Tyler and Luke Riley.

"The text chat has gone rather south. Tyler's just met this one all the way from Portugal."

Trip scoffed, those two were always had the worst luck when it came to women. Dan wasn't that bad looking, but his vast computer knowledge was enough to make almost any girl except the female Blades want to tear her strands of hair out. Luke Riley's punk style made him even less lucky.

"I'll give you a few credits to go download a Portuguese language learning app for his pad."

"Never Captain, it's too amusing." The sous chef and steward bowed as he exited, his shoes making a crisp hollow sound as he exited.

Aegis waited for a few minutes after he finished his meal before he headed towards the bridge. The minimal crew nodded as he settled into the command chair.

"Leah, any word from Vasili yet?"

"Nothing." She turned a knob on her station with her back still to him. "His marker still says that he's in Sabtro, but that was almost ninety minutes ago."

Each member of the Blades had a small chip inside their bodies that transmitted a signal every ten minutes with a limited range that was near instant, despite the _Ballista_ and her operatives being light years away. It was mainly to keep track of all members at all times, drawing power from the electrical nervous system of their bodies.

"I just spoke with Metsker, they're planning to have us in by the week. Once we head to Misrata, I want Drew to get the pelicans and phantom on a sweep of the surrounding rural districts. Also get the tiger and a couple of warthogs ready to be carried down. The pirates will never expect their front company to deal with a team that came from a ship that's supposed to be scrap."

"Do you think slaves are here?" Leah asked, now turned around in her seat with a cup of flavored water in her hand.

"I guess they'll be telling us in a few hours." He replied, already turning his back and heading to the bay to get into his MJOLNIR armor.

"So you're going alone?"

"That's right." His voice was like rigid steel, "We need to find the _Anije_'s cargo and my best bet is to infiltrate it. If I get into scrapes, I'll call for backup."

Leah knew better than to question him, after all neither had any idea of what they were about to walk into.

* * *

**Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! You all give my writing purpose!**


	17. Straight into Hell II

**Sabtro, Victoria**

**August 11, 2558**

It was almost midnight when Vasili found the bar that he was looking for; Sabtro's inhabitants often stepped out of his way when he approached the walkway. Although he enjoyed the authoritarian aura that he had, it was a demonstration to where the ultimate power in Victoria was.

The area was only dimly lit by dark orange light, making it look even more eerie to the more rugged buildings. Asphalt was crumbled in several places, occasionally a car would roll down the street as if in a contest to see whose was the most beat up. The other buildings lining the streets were small apartments which had narrow alleyways that were slanted. Vasili thought that the demolition of one building could cause them all to topple over.

His plan involved going the same steps that the journal's author, Vladan had taken. Once he was in control of Andres and whoever his boss was, there was no option but to just go on with the tide.

Pop music was faintly heard from the far end of the street coming from a neon lit building which had to be the place where he was directed to. His breath became shorter and sweat began to coat his palms. It didn't matter whether the Spartan had overcame his past fears and anxiety, still the thought would still remain in his mind. Inside him, that thought took a toll on his psyche, weakening him from inside out, just like a concussion. There was always the risk that the next one would be the fatal one.

Forcing himself to cross the street, Vasili reached the bar, noting the old military jeep parked in the lot behind. There wasn't a bouncer filtering out enterers so he swung the door open, assaulted by acrid smoke and the rapid beat of pop music blasted from a trio of three foot speakers at the bar's rear. The smoke was denser than a World War I gas attack and just as irritating to his nose and eyes. A wood floor had stains from spilled alcohol and dry spots from previous drops as well as the yellowish oval of vomit.

The occupants were mostly workers in their worn clothes after the day on their labor. Some of them were also young socialites dressed in what latest fashion clothes they could get. The women wore extremely short shorts and belly revealing tops. Yet, despite the music's catchy beat, there was something amiss.

There were four men at the counter. Given their space, it was clear from their uniforms of the Victoria militia and by the bartender and most patrons that the three soldiers were wanted to leave as soon as possible. If Andres was here, he wasn't going to be collecting smuggled if soldiers witnessed it. If the recruiter or the bartender wasn't going to throw out the soldiers, than nobody else would. They knew better than to stand up to the government backed military. The soldiers would stay until they drank their fill.

One of the men, a sergeant was the heavy drinker. Two empty bottles of beer were on his right as he entailed the three privates beside him about his stories. His accent sounded like he had come from Kirup's conservative suburban district while the lesser men were probably fresh from Sabtro and the other smaller towns outside the metropolis.

Vasili ordered a beer, forking over some notes along with a small tip. Nobody paid him much attention except the bartender, who eyed the large roll of money that he had deliberately stuck out of his pocket. He had devised a plan to evict the militia by the time he finished his bottle.

If Suvorov wanted the soldiers out, he would have to take them by confrontation. Any open fighting between the soldiers and the bar's locals would cause Andres to flee, negating any chance of Vasili's hopes of finding a connection to the skirmisher pirates and human smugglers.

The soldiers didn't look like they were leaving anytime soon, with the sergeant continued to tell a story about his intimate life, trying to excite the privates that soon they would have stories of their own to tell when they became sergeants. He leered at the nearby two girls once he said that.

The back corner was darkened enough to barely make out the objects sitting there. However someone was watching him as he circled around the table behind the militia. The shadows then formed into two burly men that flanked a third seating down. His eyes were hidden by polarized shades and accompanied by two other girls that could have been sisters. As Vasili made his move, Andres used one hand to push away the shades, intrigued on what was about to happen.

He swiped his hand, catching the sergeant's beer as he was about to sip the last few drops of his next bottle. At first, he had appeared confused, but then turned around with a spiteful look, daring him to say something that disturbed his leisure with his men. He stood up on his feet, much sturdier than Suvorov had expected him to be.

"You know that heavy drinking is prohibited on duty." Vasili knew that because the uniform of his soldier was lower ranked; a Private First Class, the sergeant would certainly use his authority to try and knock some sense into him. When the large sergeant scowled, looking to all the bleary eyed privates for backup, Vasili went on, "It's probably best if you and your friends leave the bar."

He scoffed when hearing a lesser rank telling him what to do. "I think it's best if you stay the hell away from me and what I do…Private." A fine mist of spittle came across Vasili's face as he watched the large man put a meaty hand on his chest and shove back.

The next thing Suvorov did shocked everyone in the bar, the sergeant was affected the most. Rather than fall back, Vasili twisted the hand attached to his chest. The momentum sent the sergeant stumbling forward, just as he expected. He then slammed his steel hard back of his wrist right into the forehead of the sergeant. He staggered back from the impact, but had eyes of an enraged bull. Suvorov was still contemplating his surprise on how that failed to knock him out when even with Spartan reflexes he had barely enough time to jerk his head out of the way from the punch. Following up with a solid palm straight into his nose, the sergeant staggered back, wiping blood that now trickled from his nostrils.

All three privates got up to their feet, fists balled and ready to defend their comrade. "Stay out; you don't want any part of this." He managed to snarl before refocusing and dodging another swing from the newly broken beer bottle that the sergeant had smashed on the table. Vasili moved smoothly as if made from water as he struck his back fist into the nose again. Blood sputtered from his target's nose as he tried swinging the razor edged broken bottle again. Before the sergeant could retaliate with a third swing, he seized the arm with the crude weapon, twisting until a pop sounded from the arm, earning a howl of pain from the victim, the hands loosened around the bottle's neck and it slipped through his fingers, shattering on the hard floor.

The sergeant's eyes resembled an enraged brute chieftain as his locked onto Vasili's.

That was a huge mistake.

Vasili launched two strikes, a wide chop to the stomach that doubled his victim over followed by a punch to the solar plexus. When the sergeant was about to move again, he whirled around, dodging another punch from him that was lazily thrown and slammed the heel of his foot into the groin. The bullish sergeant flopped onto the floor like a fish, looking up from his crouched position. Giving no opportunity, Vasili's ankle connected with the side of his head that put the brawler down for a few hours. Even when he did wake, it would be at least a day before he'd be back in shape to do any kind of vengeance, Vasili hoped to be in the shadows by then.

One of the privates got up ready to strike, but Vasili's Spartan reflexes had his hand around the man's throat so quickly it was almost instant.

"He's not worth it. Do yourselves some good and find a new friend." He spoke in English, assuming that they knew the language. "He's got quite the mouth on him that will guarantee trouble with no way out. Tell your guys' and his commanding officer that he had fallen down the stairs and never return to this bar again."

The three men must have been grateful that he had spared them because they all grabbed the limp militiamen and quickly exited. All at once people began talking excitedly about what just happened. Vasili ignored the banter and demanded another beer, which the bartender happily obliged. He was nearly halfway done with it when he saw one of the burly men from the back table come over.

"My boss Andres would like to talk to you."

He nodded, draining his beer and forcing himself to commit to what he was about to do. Once he was in the operation, they would own every inch of him. He followed the man over to the back table, looking over his shoulder to see if anyone else was watching. Nobody gave him a second glance.

Andres waved the two girls away to another table, one of them pressed her posterior to Vasili's groin. He ignored her as she and her sister left and he sat opposite the man that could be controlling his life within the next ten minutes.

"I suspected that there was some purpose behind your demonstration." His accent was clearly from Victoria, but his features suggested that he may have been from Chile or Argentina. He removed his polarized sunglasses to reveal his face somewhere in his late thirties. Faint dark circles were around his eyes which were common in people who have only known life's shadowy side.

"With them at the bar, I knew that I couldn't speak with you."

Andres raised an eyebrow in interest. "You're quite sharp in fighting. Are you here to join my personal protection group? Or is it those lovely sisters that caught your attention?"

He did not answer, rather took the tags from around his neck and set them on the table in between. The smuggler's gaze hardened, "So then you're with the force stationed here?"

"No, I was on leave in Kirup."

"So you came to see me all this way?"

"You helped a friend a while back."

"So I've heard." Andres sipped from his newest beer, the next in line from a series of caps that were to the table's left.

"I want to go to." Both men knew what he was talking about.

"Not buying it."

"Why?"

"For one, I get paid for favors like these."

The Spartan unfolded his cigar of credits, setting them in front of the smuggler. "I know how the system works. I pay you a standard fee and work off the rest when I reach places like Roost and Sigma Octanus. Right in front of you is two thousand and I will work off the other four when I reach my place of work and you forget that you've ever known of my existence."

Andres raised an eyebrow. He was clearly amused from what Vasili could see. "So then what's keeping me from taking your credits and forgetting that we've ever met?"

Vasili didn't have a verbal response and kicked over the table in a flash. The heavy wood stunned and pinned the smaller bodyguard with enough force to wind him. He thrust out his hand into the chest of the larger one and had his throat in an iron grip so quickly that the brute even had a thought of going for the pistol in his hidden back holster. Andres had also been pinned in his seat, but not by the table rather his disbelief that his two best men had just been subdued in a matter of split seconds.

"I could have killed all three of you if I wanted to. The way I see it, it's a fair deal. I can leave if you don't want it."

Andres flashed a wicked smile, "I think you will do well in our most prosperous works. I'm surprised that you have moves nearly as fast as a Spartan."

Satisfied, Vasili let go of his victim's throat and sitting down, making no mention about the Spartans. The bodyguard nursed the new bruise that he earned and glowered at him but made no move to retaliate.

"If that soldier you had put new makeup on come back for more trouble, I'd have to move sooner. There are two others making the journey as well, so we would be leaving tomorrow morning. We will then get into Kirup where I have my contact and then we'll create your documents and take you from there."

He hardened his stare, lowering his sunglasses to reveal his lifeless brown eyes. "I suggest that you don't fuck with these people. You do what you just did to my men in front of them and you'll be having your hands trying to scoop the blood back into your cuts. Understand?"

Vasili nodded silently, watching as Andres and his posse left. He knew the smuggler was low on the chain and would have to work his way up higher. Intimidating the smuggle recruiter

There was no idea to tell how long he would be in such a sorry state.

* * *

**Vasili's in trouble! Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! You all give my writing purpose.**


	18. Straight into Hell III

**Metsker Steel Works**

**Outskirts of Misrata, Flint**

**August 12, 2558**

Two hours after the enormous Metsker facility had closed, Aegis made his move.

He had a black shirt adorned with various equipment and his legs were still covered in their section of MJOLNIR armor which was also colored black. His mouth, nose and back of his head were covered by a balaclava. Sporting his favorite Acheron A9 pistol with a few spare magazines, he wasn't aiming to destroy the place, rather find anything on what the pirates were doing with Metsker, if at all.

Drew had protested his idea to go alone, saying that at least he should have a sniper covering his back. Trip didn't want anyone else at risk except himself.

"I'll be out before they knew that they've been infiltrated."

"That's what Laura said before she went aboard the _Anije_."

He now had crept in the scrapyards, using the piles of junk to spot sentries. His breathing had to be muffled, he had spotted sensors with machine guns that swept the area, not just relying on what the guards saw, but also heard and smell.

Beside one of the giant hangars, there were a few regular sized doors. He scanned the area one last time, watching the nearest autoturret pivot away from him before trying the door. Surprised it was unlocked, he peeled back, slipping inside and shutting the shaft behind him.

The hangar was empty save for a large dark object that had a few lights that shone over the large tarp covering. Sprawling structures surrounded the hidden ship and upon closer inspection they were riddled with tools made for disassembly, a ship that was nearly broken.

Slipping under the tarp, he found one of the ship's hatches. The lights inside were dim, but not able to be seen outside the covering. The interior looked oddly familiar, but now unrecognizable due to the fact that the snaking remains of the catwalk ended in a drop to the hangar's thirty foot pit down below.

From what he could tell, this was a legitimate part of Metsker, no pirates had been involved as this was merely a ship meant for breaking. What puzzled Trip was the sentry guns posted atop the hangars. If they were hiding something, surely this was a place to do it? Somewhere that you can put your guns alongside?

Reaching the bridge, he found the navigation terminal and activated it. It was dark which meant the power was out. A quick look at her engines from the port side showed that they had been cut out. Trip walked around the bridge, checking any wiring that was not removed during her alpha scrapping, which was the main removal of her electronics and interior decorations. The bravo scrapping was all appliances, consoles and other things bolted on. Finally came the delta scrapping where the entire ship sections were broken off and hauled to the mill for refining or wherever else valuable.

The ship had yet to go through her bravo scrap and he had to get as much data as possible before it happened.

He managed to find some wiring inside one of the engine computers displayed from the bridge. Ripping out the red rubber, he found the port for the terminal, wrapping it around one side and using the other side, opened his flashlight, using the wire inside and adapting it to his battery.

His rough contraption worked, the navigation terminal flickered to life, shimmering as it attempted to compensate for the static interfering with the screen.

Aegis flicked the clearance button and hacked the system of the low frequency signal that Drew had been broadcasting for a few minutes. The terminal seemed to sync and then went green, giving him free access.

He was surprised to see the navigation drive purged and her slipspace generator having been disconnected with the controls. Metsker wasn't known to do much with the things that were kept inside the ship and that part was often kept out of what Aegis and the Blades had glimpsed at the company on their website. Sale of a slipspace drive was highly illegal, even in independent colonies like Flint. After scouting the _Anije_ and her compliment of pirate craft, it was safe to say that they had been refitted into pirate vessels for quicker transportation and a fast escape if necessary.

He scrolled to access the other stations from his terminal when his battery began to die out. At first the screen flickered and then after a few minutes, the brightness began to fade until Trip was straining to keep looking. He finally found some records that he was looking for in the fuel data. The identity of the ship had been erased from even the intact logs which he cursed and banged, before the terminal finally died, his power drained. What he did manage to get was that her journey ended very close to where he had engaged the pirates for the first time.

His client and friend Koyara had provided him with everything about the ships that the pirates had assaulted, dossiers, manifests and even the numbers on everything inside the ship. Had the pirates not been intelligent enough to remove even the galley oven, he could have pinpointed it by finding out the serial number and matching it to the respective vessel.

He slunk outside, finally seeing the ship's engine husks. The innards had been removed, evidence by the massive hollow section in between. However something else caught his eye.

Oil had been smeared over what Trip saw as a digit on the engine's serial number. Using his gloved hand, he brushed aside the oil, finding the eleven digit serial number. Punching it onto his disposable datapad, he put up a search.

His mouth fell open when the ship's name came up.

"I'll be damned."

"Damned right you are." The voice came out as a whisper. Trip turned around when he was slammed against the engine cover with the muzzle of a pistol squarely in between his eyes.

From the back of the ship drifted the voices of men and light now reflected off the shiny smooth surfaces of the metal hallways.

* * *

**That's not good! Who is this mysterious assassin?**

**Well I am now officially done with school for the year! Summer break awaits, which means lots of work and (the good part) writing! Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! You all give my writing purpose!**


	19. Straight into Hell IV

**Somewhere on Victoria**

**August 14, 2558**

During Vasili's ONI training, he had been countless programs to ready him for one of the toughest jobs to ever been placed on a human. Even his Spartan augmentations afterwards made his position as an ONI field agent no easier. The most grueling was the resistance to imprisonment and interrogation, lasting nearly a two whole weeks. It was run by Marine and Navy specialists at one of Reach's heavy forts, Fort Lavigne.

Before he had left for his mission, an undercover objective for the torture, he was given a random code word by his instructor. To pass the interrogation toughening, he was required to keep the word from breaking and it was the job of the torture specialists to get that code word out of him.

For his entire stay, they had owned his body and soul. Some of the horrible atrocities they had done to him were regular beatings in various parts of his body, confined on the hot days inside a stuffy container without water. Sometimes they would poison his miniscule food which made him spew it back up after eating. They once forced spiced rum down his throat during an hour of questioning until he passed out and upon awakening, he was waterboarded. No matter how much they tried to beat him, he never gave up his code word, Vasili kept a small part of his mind on the part that it was merely a drill and he was not going to die.

All of his hopes of such torture were now out of sight as he sat locked in a concrete room the size of a bedroom with nearly fifty other immigrants.

He somberly looked up to see the man with a rifle shut the door. Looking down he whispered, "Surf."

The time he spent at Fort Lavigne was pretty much a five star vacation compared to a couple of says spent in the hands of Andres' employers.

He along with the other men hadn't been given a single crumb of food or a drop of water for days. He was overwhelmed by the stench of sweat and the occasional waft of body waste.

In the process, he was in the hands of the higher echelons of the smuggling cell; they had taken his picture on a forged Victorian document and then gave him the crust of a half eaten roll. He was then sent back to the cell under the watchful eye of an armed guard.

On the morning of the third day in the cell, a group of skirmishers arrived from a small jackal shuttle. They spoke to the smugglers and then the sentries brought out the cell's occupants and paraded them in front of the six pirates. Vasili couldn't see their faces because if the gray bulky armor and the familiar symbol on their shoulders. He noted the plasma pistols on their hip holsters.

He and the other men and women stripped naked as if on an auction in front of the smuggler's clients. The skirmishers were inspecting every single one. Vasili's teeth were checked for decay and then they had to prove that they could lift some stone by a wood pole.

After a couple of other tests, running and hauling more stones, the skirmishers brought out two boxes, both with four Covenant carbines inside. Instead of money, the smugglers were instead paid by Covenant weaponry, which was expensive in human society due to its rarity and effectiveness.

They selected the five out of Vasili's group, himself included. These were the biggest and strongest of the lot. The others were sent back to the cell.

They were led out to a docked U shaped spirit dropship that seemed to be on its death throes. Then upon entry, herded onto the prongs of the ship along with other muscled smuggled, likely from another post. The dropship roared to life and he felt the craft begin to ascend as it broke free of Victoria's gravity.

What impressed Vasili was that nobody cried or complained. Not a single soul demanded to be released. They were willing to escape the clutches of oppression and were willing to do anything to accomplish that.

They flew for what seemed like days but in reality was likely not over twenty four hours the ship finally settled down and powered off. They now heard more instruments working so that meant that they were onboard a starship of some sort. It would be another thirty minutes before someone threw open the hatch. Some of the men closer to the opening tumbled out onto the purple floor. They were onboard a Covenant ship. When Vasili exited, he was proud of his ability to stay upright.

Careful not to arouse suspicion, he crossed around the spirit, noting a space capable banshee parked in the stand. Fear began to creep into his limbs as it began to dawn on him. This was no simple pirate operation, it was a real illegal smuggling. He had no options left and no way to contact _Ballista_. He had thought of grabbing the banshee fighter and hightailing it out. It was only a few yards to his left and within seconds he could be in the seats, powering the engines on and boosting out.

Bracing himself for the attempt, he planted one foot in front of the other when he saw a skirmisher underneath the hull tinkering with the cannons. He had a thought of attempting it anyway when one of the skirmishers sprang in front of him, snarling in a clear order, pointing his needler towards the others who were now headed to the cell blocks to be contained until they arrived.

He allowed the skirmishers to escort him to a cell that he shared with two others. Both of his partners had the same sagged defeated look to them. He now thought that the ones in the container suffering a cold bleak death were the luckier ones.

"How long will it take to reach wherever we're going?" The man asking was a younger boy, maybe about twenty.

He still thought that he was headed for Reach or wherever. The ship's bearing was in the opposite direction towards the Outer Colonies.

Six hours later, he was roused out of his sleep by an alarming blow by the skirmisher's needler. Vasili cringed as the blood remained on the pink crystals and from the wound in his side. He was then moved out with his cell mates to the spirit again. The shield doors were active, hindering any attempt to disclose where they were.

The dropship's interior had been scrubbed so now a fresh smell, the first pleasant thing ever since Vasili started his journey. He piled in with everybody else, making sure that he got into a comfortable position before everyone was stuffed. Once the doors were sealed again, the spirit took off and they remained in silence for the next two hours with only the engines constant whine that sounded as if it were to fail at any second.

The dropship arrived at their site, offloading the cargo hard enough to bruise his feet. Looking up at the black mountains of the open cold air, Vasili saw the others coming to their senses as well. He joined them at the entrance and got his first sight of hell on this world.

* * *

**Now is where Vasili's really going to have a hard time! Now it's not just Trip who's in deep trouble.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! You all give my writing purpose.**


	20. Straight into Hell V

**Pirate mothership **_**Devoted Envoy **_**over Metsker Steel Works**

**Outskirts of Misrata, Flint**

**August 12, 2558**

Ryan Weld stood on the _Devoted Envoy_'s bridge watching the smaller traffic below moving in wild patterns like flies. The low hanging clouds produced a bed of needlelike structures as the ever tall skyscrapers poked through the white fluff.

The _Devoted Envoy_ was much different in appearance than her secondary constructed vessels that preyed on the merchants of uncharted space. She was previously an SDV class corvette serving in the fleet of Particular Justice. Nex Fel had been assigned to lead the skirmishers onboard to human ground engagements. Leading the charge, he and his valiant warriors had devastated human defenses in New Alexandria. Upon decoration of commending by the sangheili shipmaster, they executed their plan, one that they had begun conspiring since the first engagements on Reach.

Now the Devoted Envoy was the command ship of the entire empire that was run by Nex and his children, Jor placed in command of his ship.

The door to the bridge slid open and a well built skirmisher walked onto the deck, settling into the command chair. Jor Fel wasn't as impressive as his father Nex, but his scary look starting with his scarlet eyes and ending to his feathers that had been sharpened with silver shaded aluminum sharpened into knives that clung to the tips.

"Mr. Weld." That was the pilot assigned for his personal transport. "I have our shuttle ready. Say the word and I will file our flight plan."

It had been years ago since the human and the skirmisher had met and worked together on their black market operations.

During the early days of the Fel Empire, Nex Fel led his group of skirmisher outcasts in a mutiny strike under the cover of night, when even the sangheili in charge were least aware. They had secured the engine room and disconnected the controls from the bridge, killing all of the unggoy that had been there. When the ship's sangheili arrived since there was no Covenant engineer onboard, Fel jumped atop the surprised larger Covenant soldier, jabbing his energy cutlass into his throat. The elite had growled and failed his arms, fruitlessly trying to buck off the smaller alien while being held down by Fel's men. Two more elites followed suit as they came to check on what had happened to their brother. By now, Nex had the codes to the armory which he and some of the more higher up skirmishers had helped themselves to carbines, rifles and needlers. Storming the bridge took little effort, the crew was entirely slaughtered and the shipmaster and his two lekgolo bodyguards sucked out of the emergency hatch.

With himself now in control, he set course for the second human world. Having been born to a long line of pirates, it was no doubt that he and his brother Sav Fel would resort to terrorism to restore their lineage's glory and the legends of skirmisher space faring ways. Nex's future gains when he operated on the remote areas of Flint became one of the most heated black market areas that somehow was kept underneath the Covenant's attention, which was busy swatting at the UNSC on Earth.

Jor was snapped out of his thoughts when a minor skirmisher approached him. "Sir, he's waiting for you."

Dismissing him, Fel walked down to his personal quarters. Aside from the ship's steady humming it was rather tidy. Unlike his brothers and sisters who left their belongings askew, cleanliness was among his top priorities. The freshness made others not suspect what his nature was.

The left side, which displayed some of his prized hoards, the most valued being a jiralhanae chieftain ceremonial shoulder armor could be seen from the other side of the channel. His massive black glassy screen warmed to life and turned into a blur of blue colors, some light and others darker until they sharpened into the shape of someone looking back at him.

"Jul 'Mdama." Jor wasn't a member of the Storm Covenant, but still lowered his head and bowed in reverence. To anyone who opposed humanity or the UNSC, 'Mdama was practically a living god. No other Covenant member had been bestowed with such riches from one of the most powerful gods in their religion. Not that it was bad or anything, but now that they had declared their lies from the prophets, seeing a living god created mixed feelings for many of his followers. He was quickly recognizable by the white handprints on his armor and the holographic symbol that seemed to not be part of his helmet.

'Mdama was flanked by one of his top commanders, Gek. Often seen in charge of a high profile base, Gek's combat prowess against humanity during and after the Great War was monstrous. His right eye had been replaced by a milky cybernetic and a nasty scar ran across his face splitting the leathery skin.

The sangheili leader whispered something to him, who quickly left.

"Jor Fel. How is your father?"

Sangheili culture prohibited most younglings from knowing their true fathers; the same couldn't be said for kig-yar.

"Nex is doing fine, he's overseeing one of our operations." Jor's knowledge of the sangheili language was rusty, having learned it in segments during his time in school. "He told me to ask you of a favor."

"What could you need from me?" 'Mdama huffed. Jor felt like he was being asked to do a favor, which greatly bothered him.

"A while back, we had a couple pirate ships destroyed. Someone pretty much stormed one, killed our crew and then blew it up. They then retreated to their own ship and fired upon the second one, destroying it too."

"So then why didn't you ask for reinforcements?" Jul spoke so fast that Jor had to go through what he just heard a couple of times before managing to piece a reply.

"There was no time. The commander of the vessel was killed by none other than Spartans." He held a smile when he saw the sangheili's muscles involuntarily tense from anger. "I think the UNSC may be on to our operation and I want to see if you can provide us with some intel."

'Mdama waved his hand and Gek was beside him in an instant. "Gek, has anyone reported on Spartans attacking kig-yar ships?"

"All of the Spartans have reported in no such actions Shipmaster."

Jul waved Gek away again, turning back to face the skirmisher. "Neat. How did you know that?"

"We've acquired a secret listening outpost and are able to freely listen on everything that Infinity is doing. Mission briefing, crew interactions, traffic control." He proudly shoved his chest forward, "I can just reroute our phantoms to reinforce and we can see them coming before they even know that they have the advantage."

"Don't expect that advantage to last." Jor replied, "Anyway, since there is no assistance on intel, I would like to ask if you would be joining us as allies against the main human organization."

"You truly believe that the _Infinity_ and her allies are what are trying to take you down?! _Infinity_ has been over Requiem giving me much more pressure to deal with than your petty little pirate ring!"

"Well we've changed."

"I'm sure you have, but I well remember what you did to the original leader of the ship that you now command."

Sangheili and kig-yar did not get along, well most of them anyway. Although not as much hatred between the kig-yar and the lowly unggoy. 'Mdama was very patriotic of his homeworld and was under others that believed that sangheili were the most superior species to ever rule the galaxy and they should be the ones to uphold the gods' principles.

"Well we have cooperation for labor. I'm pleased to tell you that we have many human slaves under the belief that they've found refuge. Their efforts have boosted our cause significantly and maybe they can also be of service to you." When 'Mdama tilted his head to the side in interest, Jor smiled. "Think about this; an entire city of humans ready to work for you, building ships, weapons and even bases. All yours to command."

Jul snarled, "I don't seek the enslavement of humanity. Although that would be fitting since they're still filth, I seek their extermination. Besides, with a shadowy group trailing you, I wish I had never been involved. I lost my most prized weapon that could have destroyed the Infinity and I can't afford to risk anything else."

"We desperately need you help!" Jor pleaded, "If we don't stop whoever's onto us, then we're doomed!"

"Nonnegotiable. Send my regards to Nex for me." The Didact's Hand cut the connection, chuckling on how he just spelled Fel empire's death warrant.

* * *

Ryan Weld stepped off the shuttle as it touched down far from the bustling urban areas of Flint. Immediately relaxing because of the cool breeze, he suddenly began to chill as he made his way over to the outpost that sat beside the landing pad. The nearest town was a dozen miles away and several highways had run through the territory of where he set up his base. To help deter suspicion, he had his men put detour signs along with cameras along the borders. Anyone who managed to ignore the sign would be intercepted by a patrol and turned away. So far nobody was reported to the authorities, but Weld could see possible investigations coming.

"Welcome back Weld." Nex Fel sat in a chair hunched over, accenting his muscular frame. Considered to be buff in the skirmisher society, he was just as tall as the former Insurrectionist, like his eldest son, metal slivers clung to his slicked back feathers and his teeth were razor sharp, no doubt having sliced through the flesh of his enemies.

"So how's our shipments going?"

"We'll have another one en route to Sigma Octanus by tonight and from what the _Revered Peace_'s shipmaster entails is that she'll be back with another shipment of workers. We're already up twelve percent of our plans."

"Good."

The skirmisher's teeth flashed in a wicked smile. "Did you meet up with our certifier and client?"

"I spoke to them the other day while I went to Metsker, they'll be at Octanus to collect it."

Nex Fel raised his chalice filled with the amber liquid. He wasn't much of a drinker especially when it came to human liquor, "Here's to greed and stupidity. Combine that with the right minds and it can make you a rich man."

Ryan Weld smiled, he could have a drink to that.

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**What's going to happen to Vasili, where's he at? What about Aegis and his assassin?**

**Thanks for reading everyone, you all give my writing purpose.**


	21. Pursuit I

**I managed to get off work early today, so I managed to get a couple more chapters finished. This particular chapter I find that many of you will enjoy.  
**

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**Metsker Steel Works**

**Outskirts of Misrata, Flint**

**August 13, 2558**

**(Just a heads up that it passes midnight in between the last time we saw Aegis and now, so sorry for any confusion.)**

Aegis couldn't tell where the men were headed, but he shut off his night vision at the same time the pistol was holstered in his assassin's thin side. Those men were likely after him, so he had to trust the individual to get him out, who had a barrel of a gun in his forehead seconds ago.

"Do you have night vision?" He whispered.

"Yes." Came the near silent reply.

"Then lead," His hand found the slim and delicate hand encased in the leather gloves.

They reached a corridor with large shelves stacked with various things from sewer pipelines to kitchen utensils. By five minutes to stealthily walking, they could no longer hear their pursuers so they both took a knee and faced one another.

"So who are you? ONI?"

"No." Meredith Adrian replied, "I'm an investigator for the Colonial Natural Resource Department."

The Colonial Natural Resource Department was the UNSC's counterpart to an agency concerned with the consumption of natural resources in the UEG's colonies. If they were taking hits on their efforts from the pirates, it would make sense for them to send a scout to investigate like Adrian. That did explain her presence on the _Knowledge Hunter_, which engine Aegis had just identified. They had both underestimated the skirmisher Fel's empire and its vast complexity.

"And you?" She mocked, aiming her pistol as she led the way down another corridor. "You still pose as a Captain of a dilapidated commuter ship with your sensors and techs along with a knack of being at the right place at the right time?"

That façade was over, "I suppose I'll explain everything once we're out of here."

They took off now across the hangar, careful to stay out of sight of the sentry, unfortunately the exit was now being guarded by some men with guns. He rounded the corner with her in tow and headed to the second hangar, which by his looks did not have any mounted weapons.

"So commander, do you have a plan?"

"For one it didn't involve finding you." Trip's voice sounded a little unpleasant, "Plus I didn't expect to find the other goons that Bruce stashed as well. I wanted to get past these guys without detection. I have a team on standby to evac back to my ship."

"I'm not leaving until I find out what this ship's name is." Adrian's eyes flashed of defiance as she brushed a strand of dark brown hair that fell onto her face.

"This is the _Knowledge Hunter_, the ship that I quote on quote rescued you on." It shouldn't be here because the pirates snatched one of my client's freighters, all while under constant observation by my teams."

"So why shouldn't this ship be here?"

"Because the _Anije_, the ship that captured the _Knowledge Hunter_ is still a ways out."

Her beautiful face had a look of perplexity, "I don't understand."

"We need to get out of here and you're trying to play twenty questions with me." Trip's irritation was growing. Although he was more angry at himself than her because he automatically knew the answer. During the _Anije_'s journey, the _Knowledge Hunter_ had actually been transferred to a separate tug and then taken by a different route to Flint for scrapping and the metal used to create more pirate ships. Just like the previous victims that Fel's gang captured.

"I'll tell you everything, but first let's get out of here." Aegis rested his hand in hers. Without waiting for her response, Trip tucked his arms back and closed his eyes, trying to remember his entry route.

"Got it." He turned to her, "Stay close behind."

"Chivalry?"

"I'm wearing leg armor, so unless you're donning the same, I'd take it."

She knew he was right and gestured for him to lead on. They were halfway up the _Hunter_'s stair case when at the top of an adjacent ladder came men's voices and the shilhouettes coming down. Tapping Meredith on her shoulder, she silently slid down with him right behind her. Looking at the top, the men weren't commandos for sure, but they carried Misriah rifles that he may be able to survive against, but she wouldn't stand a chance.

The voices suddenly rose in pitch and Aegis heard the cocking of the weapon. In an instant, he threw Meredith to the wall while quickly following suit, just as a stream of bullets split the air where he had been a second earlier. The muzzle flashes blinded him for a second before he drew his A9, firing the weapon back to the gunmen. Meredith fired her own weapon, an unsilenced 9mm to the mix, her gun cracked like a cannonball that echoed on the ship's metal walls.

He wanted to get to the higher decks, peering up when he ducked back into cover from a wild stream of automatic gunfire from above. The gunmen occupied a strong line of fire with a broad range, outgunning him and Meredith by a long shot with their autos.

He found a metal shard on the floor and tossed it upwards. Hitting the side of the wall with a clang, another burst of fire erupted from the nearest guard much to his relief. The guards were jumpy. Coordinating his attack, Trip rounded the corner, seeing the jumpy gunman bring his weapon to bear to the other side. Seeing the night vision goggles strapped to his head, Aegis double tapped him in between the lenses, satisfied as a puff of blood plumed out from his head.

He saw a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye an instant before he felt the butt of another gun brought down on his skull. Trip fell flat, still in a daze of pain, but managed to wrap his arm around the leg. As the gunman aimed to finish him off, Trip pushed on the leg, which only had started to be pressured as he stepped forward. The weight doing the rest, he toppled to the side. Seizing his head, Trip gave it a savage yank to the right, effortlessly snapping the spine and making the guard go limp.

His head felt like glass as Meredith spotted the third gunman and fired a single shot into his mouth. He clutched at his jaws before toppling over.

She opened her mouth in a half gasp when she saw him reach for his head and examine his blood wetted fingers.

"Nothing a few stitches won't cure."

Voices were now heard outside the ship as an alarm began sounding. A horrible noise of a metallic scream seemed to come from everywhere at once. Water jets now sprayed the side of the hull where the enormous saw began biting through the _Hunter_'s hull. Trip and Meredith changed directions when they saw sparks coming from the two foot wide cut that the saw started to carve not five feet away.

As if it knew where they were headed, the saw's angle changed by a hydraulic pivot and it accelerated after them like a predator chasing his prey though narrow confines. The air now smelled dense with scorched metal and the water had evaporated into a mist that smelled equally as bad. They finally spotted the exit hatch where Aegis had infiltrated through which was a long ways off. He felt shards of metal ping off his MJOLNIR armored legs as they continued to head towards the hatch.

With two meters until they were clear, Aegis slowed his pace slightly, letting Adrian in front of him. Sweeping his leg so fast, he didn't even register doing, he knocked Meredith over. She tumbled, but his blow kept her rolling down to the exit. Aegis threw himself after her just seconds before the angry blades of the saw passed over in a shrieking roar. They landed out on the open deck, right into another ambush.

Three men had been waiting for them, now having stared through the sights of MA5C assault rifles. Aegis and Adrian had landed in a knot of limbs resembling intimacy with her hands on his chest on top and him on the bottom having hands that were on her lower back. Before either of them could get their weapons free, the guards had the weapons trained on their heads. Moments later the saw's screeching died down as the operator powered it off and retracted it back to its default position.

"We'll save the saw for later." A booming accented voice came from up higher. Aegis saw the man walk down the staircase to his left as both he and Meredith were allowed to their feet all under gunpoint. He was about Aegis' height, but his shady sinister eyes were what set him apart.

"Karl Bruce."

Bruce smiled, "How did you search go? I even thought of telling our representative to tell you to use a search engine first before inspection. I'd hate to have both of you head to your tombs still filled with curiosity." Making a gesture with his palm, Aegis and Adrian were shoved towards the saw. The lights overhead were now completely active, which gleamed off the enormous saw's silver blades like thousands of knives all rotating and mincing anything instantly. He could now see separate arms that could be linked to the main arm of the saw, allowing it to be used almost anywhere.

Bruce followed them, holding an odd metal bar as both Trip and Meredith were pushed right in front of the dormant device. When he was close enough, he handed the bar to the guards as they lifted Aegis off his feet so that they barely brushed the floor. He tried to move and break free, but each time caused his guards to lift him even higher.

Now he knew the purpose of the bar, a favorite way for pirates and their allies to dispatch their most hated enemies. The bar which was held by Bruce's men kept them at a safe distance while still holding him to the saw so that they were in no danger of being caught in the blades. Meredith let out a scream of defiance, jerking her body to get away. Her captors laughed sadistically and lifted her even higher, enough so that her body seemed to deflate.

Bruce laughed, "So Captain Davis, you must work out a lot compared to what my representative described."

Aegis growled in response, "This won't go unanswered. A special forces team is going to storm this place in minutes and kill everyone inside."

This earned a round of laughter from him as well as the men holding him. "They will be ten minutes too late. Right now, there isn't a thing that you can do to stop me. At most you have a small band of mercs. My men are now approaching the ship and you will be shortly dealt with." Aegis could tell that he enjoyed having dominance over his prisoners.

Even if Aegis and Meredith didn't make it out alive, he knew that his team would later collect the heads of those responsible. However he had to keep Bruce talking so even if his hollow threat rang true, he would also find himself a way out.

"So we're going to die. Mind telling me how the smuggled fit into your plan?"

"That is none of your concern."

"Well before you dispatch us, don't you want to know why we've come for you?"

"I do indeed, but had you come a week ago, I would have instead thrown you into an interrogation chair to extract that information, however it is now of no relevance to me."

Bruce made a spiraling gesture to his men, causing the saw to fire up to life. As he walked in front, a fifth guard came down with his rifle bouncing across his chest. Bruce angrily looked at him, daring him to speak in front of his public execution.

"We've lost contact with our forward outpost on the highway! With all due respect, we should be getting you out of here!"

"Ready the aircraft. I will be there shortly after I finish my business with these two."

The soldier gulped nervously. "The aircraft are all out for repairs."

Bruce cursed. "Prepare the cars and make sure that the intruders are stopped." When the soldier ran off, he turned back to the hanging pair, "Seems like someone else wants a bit of the fun, but they'll be too late for you."

The saw had now reached its optimal speed and the horrendous sound came back, nowhere as bad as it was when cutting through the metal.

Aegis looked around, desperate for a way out. A glance at Meredith seemed to shock her. His eyes pleaded for her forgiveness on what he was about to do. She knew he was going to try something crazy, what it was going to be had eluded her mind. Their brief eye contact told her that he wished that he had got to know her better in their brief time together.

The guards brought him back down so that he no longer stood on the tiptoes of his feet. Using the bar, they prodded him closer to the whirring saw. Even ten feet away he felt the rush of power; it was a force that split the air.

"I'll let my men enjoy the woman before they feed her to the saw." Bruce made sure he had Trip's attention after speaking loudly to hold a piece of plywood up to the whirring blades. He extended his arm and it only took a nanosecond for the rotating saw to explode the piece of timber into dust.

Aegis gave no outward indication that he was about to act, but the guards hadn't noticed it either. While being moved to the saw, he had slightly lowered his body so that he had some spring action in his legs.

Without hesitation, he quickly jumped towards the saw, letting his legs extend forward to the blades, half expecting his entire leg to come off. He was aware of Meredith's stunned scream when the saw bit into his left leg, the action ripped the pole from the guard's grip and thrown back at them in metal slivers.

His plan had worked, the guards had not been expecting to be caught in the motion and their grip prevented the saw from severing his leg off. His armor on the other hand, had been busted and would need excessive repairs. The momentum tossed him twenty feet away on the deck.

Trip landed in a pristine shoulder roll, pulling out his weapon that he had hidden from the guards in his vest.

As much as he wanted to put a bullet through Bruce's forehead, the A9 only had four rounds left inside the chamber and the guards had relieved him of spare magazines. Plus he would be gunned down if he wasted time on an unarmed man. He took aim at the startled guards and fired two shots. Both of their heads jerked as the bullets sliced through the bone. He aimed high at one of the returning guards and fired, causing him to duck beside Bruce, who was no in cover behind a large box. The bullet actually went through one of the guards holding Meredith. He let go, howling as he registered the gaping hole in his stomach. She used the opportunity to use her weight against the other guard and stunned him with a kick to the stomach. Relieving him of his older battle rifle, she smashed the stock against his head and aimed at the shooter up high, taking him out. His body fell towards the saw and was quickly pulped into a bloody mess.

Just as she was aiming at Bruce, more gunfire, this time Covie weapons began centered around the box where she had knelt behind. Aegis put his last bullet through the most accurate of Bruce's reinforcements, noting that the Metsker head was now being escorted through the door.

Meredith dropped two more of them when Aegis stared at the large door nearest them. Bullet holes rattled the side when a vehicle rammed through, crashing the thin metal sheets down.

One of the men spotted the new arrival and tossed a light explosive at the six tired vehicle. Something on the side of the main gun exploded out and snuffed the grenade. The machine gun on the side whined to life as it spat hundreds of rounds at the deck where the new gunmen were at. A few returned fire, but were quickly turned to mincemeat when they exposed themselves for the briefest time.

The tiger APC's rear hatch opened and footsteps rushed out.

"Aren't I happy to see you guys." Aegis was a man of his words as Conan Pyra, decked out in his night black CIO armor and a BR85 rifle arrived, flanked by three of the team's ODSTs.

The engine of a warthog sounded from the hangar's back and it exploded out to their right, firing its chaingun at the saw controls. The box panel exploded in a mushroom of sparks and the saw slowly began to stop.

"So how was my driving?"Luke Riley asked as Laura McGarrett patted the turret on the vehicle's back.

"You forgot to use your turn indicator." She responded dryly.

"There's no time to explain. Karl Bruce, Metsker's head really is involved in the pirate operations. He's getting away in his armored limousine."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Everyone nodded as Aegis climbed into the warthog's passenger seat and Meredith joined Pyra and his ODSTs inside the tiger.

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**Yeah, I could hardly believe myself that the mysterious assassin was Adrian! Who would've thought of that? They're no longer in immediate danger, but the mission is far from over. Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! You all give my writing purpose.**


	22. Pursuit II

**Unknown Flint Mountain Range**

**August 15, 2558**

Vasili and the new arrivals gaped at the sight before them.

Dark mountains loomed in the distance, adding more misery to the everlasting gray sky above. Beaches lined the sides with obsidian stones all worn smooth. The water slicked as the waves passed over the blackness, making them ever more slippery. The sea behind them was just as bleak and gray, just as colorless as the clouds behind them.

The human misery was what really ate at the back of Suvorov's mind. The figures all on the mountain coast moved like programmed drones. There were so many that it seemed to be that the entire hill was crawling, like scavengers over a carcass. Not one person that was working was identifiable. Although he believed that most were men, it was impossible to tell because of the used looks of their wasted condition.

There had to be nearly one and half thousand forced to work on the slopes.

Water cannons sat at the base, manned by some of the smaller workers. The water was fed from the ocean, streams sluiced away at the soil, which flooded down into a drain, where even more workers had dirty buckets scooping out mud and sending it to the processing facility. The slope became like quicksand. Vasili was horrified as the entire slide came down, an enormous slab of mud. Workers alongside dove out of the way and others caught in the flow were dragged to the bottom. Some of them rose quickly, returning to their work, others were slower and two of them didn't get up. They were soon buried alive. Nobody paused from their work.

Up above, apart from the clouds was camo netting that was held by metal poles, which prevented anyone looking up above down into their secret operation.

Near the beaches in hollowed out metal areas were massive vats that the long mechanical sluice boxes formed a chain at. Thin smoke coiled from the vents at the top, indicating that whatever final process of what they needed doing would require heat of some sort.

A laser fence prevented any of the workers from trying to leave. The sharp and hot barrier would instantly slice through flesh and some armor. Behind were three stripped down ghost attack vehicles and a couple of shadow transports. The pathway that led down further from the parked vehicles was to a purple Covenant dome shaped building.

There were other large structures nearby, on the other side of the beach were old liners, some so badly beaten that it was astounding that they had made the journey. Once white or vivid in color were now smeared with filth and rubble that gave them a pathetic dull air to them.

Vasili realized that they were dormitories for the workers. He had to correct himself as he thought of it, they weren't workers, but slaves, mining in the most intolerable conditions that were possible. Whoever ran this large of a thing was definitely a greedy person.

He could only think of one thing that could meet a greed that would never be satisfied: Gold.

The gold was likely hidden in the mountains, which would be dislodged by the hydrokinetic pressure in the water cannons. The muddy remains would then be fed into the sluice boxes and then through a large shaking process to settle the gold at the bottom, which would be sucked into a tube and then through another set of sluice links for further processing. The final process was to remove the rest of the waste by mercury, the only known substance that would draw the metal. The mercury would then be removed, leaving pure gold.

Surrounding the entire site, all wearing armor splattered with mud and dirt, were armed skirmishers. All of them carried weapons varying from the plasma rifle to the ubiquitous carbine that fired radioactive projectiles. Alongside their weapons, were the cruel tools of clubs and energy cutlasses. The harsh screeches of the skirmishers patrolling sounded like horror movie music.

He and the others that had came from Kirup were formed into a line and led into the large purple building. Unlike the outside and the beached ships, the interior was heated by a plasma power plant. Suvorov shivered, trying to enjoy the heat as best he could before going out to the harsh cold again, for good. An armored pirate put a glowing green chain around his neck that was marked with some symbols which were then noted by another guard on his datapad. They were then taken to the closest shipwreck and assigned cabins, all of the conditioning of the air removed.

Their cabin had seven men, adding them all in a room designed for two. The plumbing was out, evidenced by the stench that emanated further down the hall. The blankets he was given were dirty and the mattresses were darkened by black mold. Since the workers had no place to dry, they all collapsed into their beds, drenched in crap.

Then he was shown where he would be having his meals. His guard prodded him in line where each man in front had grabbed a bowl that had specks of hard particles that resembled plastic. At the end, a wounded worker used a spoon to scoop some long grains of what looked like rice into his bowl. He then moved to then next man who used a ladle to spoon in a thick liquid that must have been tinted yellow at the top. Suvorov had gotten a mix of the yellow and the real color of the slop, gray. He finally had found a place to eat the crap when one guard came up to him.

"Get up!" The skirmisher snarled, aiming his carbine at Vasili. He knew that he had to preserve his strength, so he tilted his head back and downed the rank paste and whatever else trying his best not to choke on the thing that scratched the back of his throat.

"Next meal after work!" The skirmisher guard continued, leading them outside the hall. Vasili forced his own bile back down, but even then, he wouldn't be able to get more food until his eight or more hour shift was done. He would later learn that the skirmishers would drag a couple of their old dropships and grab whatever they could find using nets in the ocean and gathering seals in the mountains nearby. Anything and everything they had was then liquefied, the alien grain was grown by a group of skirmishers further down the coast.

Since he and the group were new and they had scattered cabins, he was with a bunch that had likely arrived before he had. He managed to get a word with them, albeit in the dark since there was no power at all. All light came naturally, so that workers had to whisper in the dark. Suvorov had already gotten a warning from one of his cabinmates that anyone heard talking by the guards had an energy cutlass shoved into them and then detonated, so instead the workers whispered quietly.

"How long have you been here?" He spoke to no one in particular in Russian.

"Since the beginning of time." A voice came back from below him.

"No seriously, how long?"

"Me? Three months. This mine however had been in operation for years."

"So has anyone attempted to escape?"

"Where are we going to go?" Another answered, "Swimming is not an option, the water is too cold and the dropships they use are all guarded. Of course we can climb the mountains, but their armory has Covenant sniper rifles and we're easy targets going slow up the mountain. Even if you manage to get past the guards, which nobody has done so far, you wouldn't last two days out there."

Vasili drew in a harsh breath, fully aware on the situation.

"They all completely own us." A third man said, "It must be our destiny to work and then die in misery. All the original men that I came here with, eight months ago are now gone. The typical life expectancy of someone here is less than six months and longer if you're lucky. You're free to ramble on with your fantasies of escape and heroism, unfortunately death is the only way you'll be out of this."

He held back on telling them who he really was. From the conditions of the slaves when he was working his first day, it didn't seem like there was an informant that Fel had placed, however the idea was still there that one of the workers could expose him in turn for an extra serving of food or maybe a temporary heater. He wanted to give these poor souls at least an ounce of hope, but it went against his training. However, he remained optimistic that Trip would get to him eventually, smiling faintly as he managed to touch the back of his head where his neural implants and transmitter were located.

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It was the third day of work when Vasili finally realized that rescue may be days away or even longer. Hacking was now louder and two of his cabin mates were now diagnosed with disease. He had started off better than most because of his physique and his body being used to a pleasant sleep schedule and actual food. By the end of the fourth day, three of the men, the sick ones included were dead.

On the fourth day, Vasili noticed an area of where some workers were unloading a pile of corpses into the side of the water. The workers' ethnicity was varying, but many were eastern European.

"I was forced to do that too." Vitaly, one of Vasili's bunkmates said. "Those who didn't survive, we had to dump out. I was forced to dump my older brother and best friend too."

"So nobody has wind of this?"

Vitaly shook his head, he was very thin, being the one who told him that he had been there three months. He was only thirty and likely was an attractive man before he left, but looked so much older and the work had taken so many tolls out of him. "I don't think so, we're too far away from any major city on Flint for someone to notice us."

Flint, so at least he knew where he was. The two things in his mind still rang strong, that Aegis had no idea where he was and that this godforsaken slave camp was going to be the place of his death.

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**I hope Vasili can hold out! Both he and Trip have unfinished business. Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone, you give my writing purpose.**


	23. Pursuit III

**Misrata, Flint**

**August 13, 2558**

Traffic maintained a steady pace as it winded around the skyscrapers like a coiling python. Aegis could see Bruce's armored black car picking up speed as it weaved through the few cars heading on the highway as well.

"You'd better hurry Trip," Drew had sounded worried and relieved at the same time on the other line, "I'm already hearing police chatter about scrambling cruisers and an overwatch towards your location."

"Acknowledged." He switched channels, "Let's pick up the pace people!"

"Say how long until they recognize who we are with a big ass tiger driving on the street?" Pyra asked from the armored vehicle's covered gunner seat.

"Cut the chatter, we've got armed contacts! Bruce must have called for backup!"

Four sleek cars all came to the sides of Bruce's vehicle, all of them bearing a rotating turret similar to the warthog. Trip's Spartan augmentations saw the barrel spinning up as it warmed the gun for firing.

He reached across the side, yanking the wheel hard to the right. In the driver's seat, Luke Riley jerked his hands back as if the steering wheel had been like molten metal. Right at the pavement where the warthog was came alive as bullets chipped at the asphalt, spraying black bits everywhere. The gunner shifted his position, trying to get a bead on his pursuer. From her stance on the turret, Laura let out a five second burst from her own gun in a warning to who they were messing with. The other smaller cars honked horns and swerved, trying to get out of the shooting zone.

Luke mashed down on the accelerator, slowly creeping up to Bruce's car as well as his escort vehicles. The tiger had taken a side row and was now on an overpass right above them. They could tell because of the dust that fell down when the heavy frame crossed over the aging bridges.

To his right, Aegis saw a beam of light cut through the dense night sky as the police hornet monitored the chase. The hornet shifted its attention to the tiger, which happened to be switching roles with now Bruce on the upper bridge and the APC on the lower.

More headlights blinded Riley for a second and he swerved to the left an instant before one of the escort cars missed its attempt in trying to ram the warthog. Aegis looked back, firing his A9 at the front glass. Laura pivoted the turret around, putting bullet holes into the sleek metal. The vehicle shrieked as it spun around trying to keep up. Trip emptied his second clip into the engine hood, satisfied that the flames licking over the car's cover would ensure its detonation two seconds later. The fireball illuminated the pursuing hornet, which then cast a light over their ride.

"That light is really starting to piss me off!" Riley shouted as he took the exit onto an east bound highway that Bruce and his men had gotten off of earlier. The hornet stayed on them as if shadowy hawks goading its prey.

Trip fired a round from his pistol that went way off. At the turns that the warthog was going at, there was a near impossibility of trying to aim straight.

"Pyra, we've got the hornet on our ass!" He shouted over the frequency, "Get that thing to turn off its light!" Riley moved the vehicle away as one of the other escort cars began firing its machine gun at them.

"Yeah we know. Vaal's about to make his entrance."

Aegis thought Vaal was the one inside the tiger. Further speculations were dismissed as he heard the familiar screeching sound of the type-26 GSA. Known better as the banshee, it was among the most feared in the Covenant arsenal, although this time, none of the Blades had anything to fear from it.

Vaal dove down, activating the wing's boosters as he zoomed past the hornet, leaving it in the dust. Almost instantly, the light was taken off of them as the pilot attempted and failed to catch the rogue aircraft.

In front of the warthog, two more escort cars had slowed down so that they were now within range of their guns. The tiger joined Aegis with the warthog, targeting the hostiles. The autocannon barked out explosive rounds, peppering their sides and forcing them to try and avoid being destroyed. It was evident that Bruce's men did not care about the state of civilians because his car rammed a van out of the way to provide an obstacle. Riley moved the warthog out of the way just in time.

"I need the turret." Aegis stood up, emptying the last of his A9 into the escort vehicle's rear end to no effect. Without even him requesting her, Laura stood and grabbed his hand. Like a pair of dancers, he swung her around until they faced one another in the passenger seat. When she squeezed his hand to let him know that she had his back, Aegis jumped out as she changed her fulcrum until he landed on the turret. He jammed his fingers on the firing button, controlling the recoil as the rounds stitched through the car. Glass chipped everywhere as the men inside ducked. When the car's occupants aimed again, Trip pointed up front. Without any time to react, the men could only watch for a split seconds before the car smashed into the pass' barricade. The entire vehicle went airborne before crashing into a disfigured metal hulk. All three occupants died instantly.

"Look out!" Someone shouted, Aegis couldn't tell if it was Riley or Laura. Out of the corner of his eye, another escort car sped towards them with the intent of ramming. Riley steered, cursing as the other car mirrored his turn, machine gun blazing. Trip squeezed off a few rounds when he saw the banshee up above. Instinct immediately told him to duck and he found himself automatically into a crouching position even as Vaal dove towards the ground, firing the banshee's bomb. The green fuel rod explosive hit right in front of their pursuers, causing a bright flash to anyone in view. The vehicle listed as it sped up its pursuit. The gun rattled as Vaal swooped down and peeled off, ascending to avoid the hornet and the gunner. Trip centered the vehicle in his sights and let down on the trigger. The M41's barrel rotated as hundreds of rounds pelted the car, causing it to explode in a violent manner. Riley saw that they had cleared all escort vehicles and weaved through the light night traffic, overtaking Bruce's car. The glass windows were reinforced and polarized. Trip saw four heat signatures in his thermal scan, not counting the engine. The motor was likely one taken from a sports car from the very fast speeds the driver took while he raced into another overpass that connected to another highway.

"Pyra, slow the tiger down and start shelling the bridge. That ought to encourage our friend to lay off the accelerator."

"You got it." The APC veered off to the left lane where it was avoided by the other cars even when heading well below the minimum speed limit. The autocannon pivoted slowly as the onboard computer tracked the speed of the target. Pyra pulled the trigger, sending explosive shells onto the bridge. To Trip's surprise, Bruce's car sped up rather than slow down. Riley must have known the same thing after mashing down the accelerator. Laura remained motionless as she aimed her sniper at the vehicle's tires, waiting for the perfect shot to pop them. Aegis fired another barrage to the wall on their left, showering the front of the car with chipped concrete and steel. The warthog's armor deflected a few shots taken from someone inside.

"Get them to speed up." Vaal told Trip.

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Knowing he had something nasty in mind, Trip opened up with the LAAG at a nearby truck. The massive vehicle shook as it suddenly lurched towards Bruce's car. Just as he predicted, the driver probably had floored the pedal as it sped out of the way to prevent being crushed by the much larger wheeler. They were coming out of the curve when Trip saw Vaal's banshee swoop down, releasing another fuel rod. He had calculated the trajectory perfectly, Bruce's driver had no time to stop when the explosive hit right in front. Cartwheeling through the air, Trip aimed at the driver and the gunman riding shotgun, opening fire with the LAAG. Dozens of rounds easily punched through the unarmored canopy, mincing the forward occupants to a meaty red paste. With a tumble of torn metal the car flew off the road before coming to a stop on the concrete parking lot adjacent to the highway.

Vaal turned around and slowed his speed so that he could land. Without warning, a flurry of bullets stitched his craft as the police hornet accelerated back into view, now with a wingman on the side holding a light machine gun. The antigravity pods exploded, releasing purple smoke everywhere. To help draw attention from the real action, he boosted upwards, with the VTOL in hot chase. Trip saw the banshee's interior rapidly blinking red, a means that it was close to being destroyed.

"Get out of the banshee now!"

Vaal threw open the hatch at nearly two hundred feet up, hurtling himself at one of the nearby Misrata skyscrapers. He must have survived when he smashed the glass of one floor, tumbling to a stop inside. Inaudible to Trip, the sangheili's hearing was then replaced with the howling of the building's security alarm.

He had no time to try and rescue him; Bruce was still alive and needed to be captured in such state. Riley stopped the warthog just short of the wreck when Trip dismounted to look at his handiwork. He retrieved some more magazines for his pistol, aiming it square at the armored door that was slightly off its hinges. He waved to Laura, who fired her sniper once again at the weaker point. Once she joined him and after she reloaded her rifle, Trip circled the wreck, making sure that there were no exit points that Bruce could take to escape.

"Oh no." Laura gasped, pointing to the car's front. It was aflame, their window was closing fast.

"Bruce, hold up your motherfucking hands and get out of the motherfucking car! You have three seconds!" When he got no response, Trip nodded to Laura. "One, two, three!" Both of them fired several shots. Several bullets splintered on the Metsker armor and others took whatever shattered glass clung to the window to the floor. Laura reloaded and moved back slightly as Trip ceased fire, clearing his pistol and approaching. Bruce gave out a cry of pain.

"Help me! I'm hit!"

"Put your hands out of the window or I throw in an incendiary grenade!"

"I cannot move. You have shot my legs!"

Laura and Trip looked at one another nervously. Although he couldn't see her face past her visor, he knew that neither of them could trust the dirty head of Metsker. Trip reached his hand to the door and pried it open, using his muscles because the bottom had scraped against the tough concrete. The moment the door was opened, the interior lights snapped on. Bruce's pants were bloodied from rounds that passed through his legs. As soon as he could draw a line, he raised an automatic pistol, firing wildly. Trip jumped out of the way even though his aim was even worse than the machine gunners they faced earlier. The rapidly firing bullets stopped by his own armor, saving his life in the process.

"Commander!" Laura shouted and pointed to the car's front. The flames were now starting to overheat the engine.

"Son of a" His last words were cut off by a massive explosion that enveloped the car. Aegis was thrown back, finding himself face down on the concrete with a throbbing knot on the side of his head.

"Trip!" Laura rushed over to him, a little scared about the amount of his blood flowing onto the hot ground. "Are you alright?"

He sat up, observing the crackling flames. "Get Sofia ready with her equipment. I can be patched."

Another engine was heard as Pyra pulled the tiger up beside the smaller warthog. Adrian was the first out of the hatch. Glancing at the burning wreck without obvious surprise, she strode over to Trip, placing her arm over him.

"Well this turned out to be a dead end." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Laura give him a look of curiosity. He made a nearly unnoticeable gesture for her to stay cool.

"Actually it didn't." He waved to the car, "Bruce is inside."

"He's dead."

"If he's not, then he's being grilled right now."

"I hate to interrupt the chatter," Pyra waved from the top hatch, "But knowing Misrata's police, they'll be here any second. It is especially when Vaal took out the two officers looking for him when they shot down his banshee."

"Did you guys get him?"

"He's onboard taking a snooze."

Trip started back to the warthog, the others in tow to their vehicles. There was no need to conceal the evidence of what they did. "Then let's get the hell out of here."

* * *

**Well that's one villain down, plenty more to go! He got exactly what he deserved.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone. You give my writing purpose.**


	24. Resolve I

**Unknown Flint Mountain Range**

**August 18, 2558**

The shouting and guttural chirps of the skirmisher pirates rang even louder through the air as many of them scampered about. The airspace between the canopies was now alive as half dozen phantom dropships with their armaments removed landing at the landing pad. In the distance even more purple colored carriers returned from wherever their mothership was docked.

Vasili was in a line that passed buckets of liquid mercury to the station where it would separate the gold and the sight of the pirates and slaves working feverishly to load long boxes aboard. They were preparing another shipment to head out.

He had been caught transfixed by the loading process that he forgot that the young man next to him was waiting for him to take the bucket. The line was long and holding up didn't bode well. He tried to get Vasili's attention, but the guard saw it first, slamming the stock into his back that hurt, but didn't do any serious damage. He dared not to look back because it would send the skirmisher pirate into such a towering rage that he wasn't sure he'd be able to survive. His body was now starting to wear as well from the long hours with slop meals and substandard nutrition gave him complete wretched state. He did have to hand it to the others, who seemed to tolerate it better than he did.

His roommate in his cabin, Vitaly had timed their work so that they could head back and eat together. Of all the members that were present when Vasili first arrived, only he and Vitaly were still alive.

"It's all hopeless now." He said as both of them trudged to the pier where the partially beached freighter they called home sat in the black sand. Her pure white hull had dark smears of mud and dirt. Despite all of his bleak state, Vasili still had a tiny glimmer of hope left inside him.

They were halfway to their steps of the mess hall when the closest phantom's gravity lift turned on and a larger skirmisher descended running out to look at the loading process of the large boxes. He was decorated in dark red ornate armor with a flowing cloak that nearly touched the muddy ground and his feathers were covered in razor sharp metal spikes. He had a plasma pistol holstered in one hand and his other hand around something in his ear, most likely a communication device.

"Weld, it's Nex…Yeah the authorities just threatened to head over here and watch the place. They find out what we're doing here, we're done!...What do you mean I'm done?" He looked around for eavesdroppers and his gaze centered right on Vasili.

Immediately, he let out a scream of pain and collapsed onto the dirt, doing his best to make the injury sound convincing. Vitaly rushed to his side, "Are you okay?" In response, the Spartan jerked his head towards Fel. He wrinkled his forehead in confusion as the skirmisher pirate warlord turned away again.

"I'm not surprised with you sitting in a Jacuzzi right now…We can move our one hundred and fifty tons within a few minutes, as soon as I get these filthy damn workers going. No Bruce is no longer part of the equation, he's not been answering any of my calls."

"I think they're leaving." Vitaly whispered as they moved on after another warning glance from the skirmisher. "Do you know what will happen to us now?"

"You heard them, they're leaving us behind."

"So we're going to die." Vitaly's head lowered in defeat. "Whether they leave us or not."

Vasili knew that he had reached his psychological limit. In any survival situation, staying optimistic was half the battle to staying alive. He figured that he could trust Vitaly and knew that if he lost hope now, then he'd be dead within the day's end.

"Listen." He grabbed Vitaly's shoulders, looking at him square in the eyes. "We are not going to die on his damn coast."

He gave him a sad smile, "You say empty words. "

"I'm not a Russian." When Vitaly gave him an odd look, he realized what he just said, "Actually I am Russian but was raised on the motherland. I am a member of a group investigating these pirate links to the illegal traffic."

"So you are UNSC?"

"Fight for her." Vasili recalled a propaganda poster describing the fight for Earth.

Vitaly actually smiled warmly for the first time that they met, now brightened with newly found hope. He squinted out towards the sea and pointed, "Fresh crap tonight huh?"

Vasili looked out, seeing the small fleet of ships that normally brought in what was on the menu for the grinder and the slop inside his bowl. Observing closer, he saw that it wasn't with its normal kig-yar crew of fishermen and hunters. They were armored humans, all armed to the teeth with assault weapons.

Things were about to get messy.

"Come on." His senses were on high alert and his long worn fatigue gone. The human attackers must have felt the same thing, closely clutching their rifles.

Gunfire erupted from one of the dropships as the plasma cannon on her lower side opened up, raking the deck of the approaching boat with bluish bolts. Both he and Vitaly were too far away from the pirate's main armed force to be in the crossfire. He led Vitaly to the side of the headquarters, peering out at the ocean as the four assault boats beached themselves and a roar of bullets erupted from Weld's PMCs. Fel's men had been caught off guard and lost a few members, but the massive numbers immediately went on alert, returning fire. Anyone, PMC, slave or skirmisher caught in between the main lines was cut down to multicolored bloody ribbons.

"What's happening?" His accomplice asked, somewhat in a panic mode.

Vasili looked out again, the two dozen of Weld's specialists had found cover behind concrete blocks, a buildings and even a sharpshooter and his DMR inside the bulletproof boat.

There had to be nearly forty skirmishers nearby trying to pick them off with even more joining the fray. They completely outnumbered their opponents, but from the looks of it, Weld's PMCs were much better trained, likely all of them seasoned innie commandos.

The betrayal was flawed, although Weld had to get ahold of the bullion, it was held on the phantoms which were on the landing pad a ways from the beach. His men would have to annihilate every pirate who obviously knew their intentions from setting up a plasma turret and posting some of the better ranked troops in front of the walkways.

A swarm of skirmisher reinforcements were headed straight towards Vasili and Vitaly. They had been doing the oppressing of the slaves whose shift was going on presently until Weld decided to interrupt. He edged Vitaly behind a crate of gold until one of the guards passed too close.

In a move only fast enough for a Spartan, Vasili stuck his hand out in a fist and swung it the opposite direction. The pirate was running so fast, he had no chance of stopping. The blow knocked him clean off his feet. He reached inside the gold container, grabbing a handful of the precious metal, flinging it at the gunman who was starting to get up, still in a daze.

As if caught by a shotgun blast, the shards of gold, with their softness struck through flesh and buried themselves in his brain. He was dead before the body's ragdoll effect of jerking followed as a visual.

Vasili reached down for the weapon, a Covie carbine. Without an exchange of words from his partner, they sprinted to the purple domed building. The automatic hatch opened up for them, glowing in a typical blue Covenant fashion. He aimed at his targets, four skirmishers all turning to see who entered. He had put a round from the carbine's barrel into their skulls before they even registered that he had been a slave.

Rushing forwards, he managed to get a rough translation of all the Covenant runes that dotted the panels inside the pirates' HQ. Vowing to get another session of Covenant language, he found the main communications station. Settling down, the large purple rectangle remained static, despite him punching in the commands.

"Looking for this?" The raspy voice came from behind. Vasili had already deduced what the problem was when he saw the solution; a jammer inside a skirmisher's hand.

Quickly as not to make sure he was calm, he spun around to his left, grabbing the carbine and with one swift motion, fired two shots. The first radioactive particle went right through his left arm, severing muscle tissue and causing him to drop the jammer. The second shot impacted dead center in his chest, killing him before he had gotten more chances to gloat.

Vasili stepped over the corpse, smashing the lemon shaped device. "Yeah I was looking for that. I'm touched that you went through this trouble to bring it to me." The last part was laden with hatred.

He sat down and punched in a code that was instant for him to remember, despite being days since he had last recited it. He had no way for a confirmation that his message had got through, but if Trip and the crew weren't fast enough, there wouldn't be anyone to save and someone was going to make off with a blood treasure.

"So what now?" Vitaly asked, one he had finished his work. He had been watching the whole fighting scene with utter awe.

Vasili turned to him when they exited the building, smashing the side panel with the rifle so that nobody could get in or out. "Payback time."

* * *

**Vasili's starting to fight back now! Will Aegis and the Blades make it to him in time?**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone. You give my writing purpose.**


	25. Resolve II

**UNSC **_**Ballista**_** over Flint**

**August 16, 2558**

Three days. Three long days had the Blades chasing the Fel's Imperial Fleet across Flint.

When they had finally started narrowing the pirate's main base somewhere in the remote areas of the colony, they were suddenly attacked in low orbit by several of their new pirate ships, courtesy of Metsker.

They risked running to the equatorial area where shipping traffic could be as notorious as Misrata's infamous gridlock. So instead to reach the mountain range, they crossed over the pole. However even ONI grade sensors would still screw up due to interference. That would seriously hinder any attempt to try and find Vasili, even if he was on Flint. His transmitter had been dark ever since he was on Victoria.

The more Aegis dwelled on him, the darker his fate seemed to be. He just wasn't ready to admit that Vasili could be dead.

"Thinking about your man?"

Trip angrily spun around to face whoever addressed him, the voice was completely right, but he didn't make it seem like it was true. It was more of an irritated face of being disturbed.

"Another time?" Meredith nearly jumped back. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"You didn't." He diverted his gaze out the window, watching as the remains of their newest pirate ship victim begin to slowly disintegrate and collect inside the atmosphere.

"Drew told me that you like these." She handed him a glass with a ruby red liquid inside. It was a good guess, Trip didn't particularly like cocktails, but given the things that he had experienced the past days was worthy of a drink. He turned back to Adrian; she probably just came out of the shower. Her hair was slicked back over the fluffy towel that covered her body. Her azure blue eyes were complimented by the fullness of her mouth. Despite him studying her for a full minute, she was more intrigued with his appearance than he was with hers.

When the saw had cut into his armor, he had substantial loss of blood from when the blade had cut through the crystalline layers of his MJOLNIR armor. The shards had caved inward, slicing into his skin. Remarkably, the leg biofoam injectors had managed to halt bleeding for nearly an hour, which helped him stay focused when they tried and failed at Bruce's rescue. At least Bruce was now well done steak and Trip was still alive.

Sofia had patched up his head injury with some medigel and sealed the cut in his leg. All had healed in a rather quick time and his reminder was a nasty long scar running vertically on his left calf.

"I'm sorry about the death glare I just gave." He tilted his head back for a mouthful of the cocktail, savoring the kick that the liquor gave. "I had been lost in my own realm."

"Is his name Vasili?"

"That's correct. One of my best. It's been my wrongdoing that I've been unable to show you my full band of fine humans and elites that serve alongside."

"Elites?"

"Yes, as far as I know we are the only group that operates both human and sangheili troops."

"The vast sophistication is just mind blowing, especially how you run your ship without a hint of stress."

Trip smiled, there was no way he would tell her that he could be stressed and not show it all the time. "So how was your cabin?" He leaned against the wall, "Did you enjoy it?"

Her pupils dilated, a sign that she was very happy. "Are you kidding? My cabin is twice the size of my apartment in Luna. Your food is like that of gods and the atmosphere is like I'm rather on a four star cruise than a war vessel. Don't be surprised if you find the guest cabin's mahogany coffee table or bathroom marble missing."

Both of them chuckled at the statement. Silence descended from both of them as they watched the _Ballista_ power on her thrusters and Drew moved her to the next area for surveillance.

Meredith finally spoke, "So how did you start?"

"Start what?"

"Your Blades gang."

"Once the war against the Covenant had ended, I knew there were going to be increase of conflicts on both sides. The innies were more than happy to resume their bombing plots and refusal to repair ships and the Covenant were already outbreaking in their own civil war. So therefore I started this mercenary group, picking only what the best had to offer. As for the _Ballista_, we would need a mobile interplanetary headquarters with everything you see on her now."

"So you do this for the money?"

"There's a little bit of a capitalist side in me." Aegis agreed.

"You know your crew thinks the whole universe of you. From what they've told me is that you've turned down quite some enticing missions over the few years you started this group."

"I did." Trip found himself growing distant as he began remembering all the times where he had declined. "I accepted some too. It's satisfying enough about the money. What I'm really after is the pay for doing what's right. Now I'm not saying that everything we do is going to be that way. Over time, we've made some powerful adversaries. We're aware of that. You're only going to get the bigger rewards if you take the bigger risk."

"I see." She pursed her lips, unsure of where to continue.

Luckily he managed to save it, snagging a folder that he had brought with him earlier containing a stack of papers. Handing it over to Adrian, she opened it and looked back with a blank expression on her face.

"Friend of mine in the Flint government recovered a data chip from the remains of Bruce's car. That contains every ship that the pirates seized and transported back to Metsker for scrapping to build their own fleet. I imagine it can also crack a multitude of cases at your Natural Resources bureau. We've tracked some of their work to a private consultant and former insurrectionist squad leader Ryan Weld, who's also been involved in some of Bruce's shady dealings with Fel."

Suddenly Trip got a high of inspiration. He took another piece of paper and scanned through it.

"Mercury."

"Say what now?"

"Mercury." He reached for his comlink, opening a channel. By the time the waiting bar had reached its third rotation, Luke Riley answered. "Hey Riley it's the Commander."

"Hey Commander."

"What are you doing?"

"In my room trying to boost the maximum volume level of my speakers with Danny."

"I'm sure we'll be hearing it tonight. Do me a favor and tell me what metals are compatible with mercury."

"Hold on." Luke went off the line for about thirty seconds before returning. "Mercury can bond with zinc and gold most notably. The practice is frowned upon because of health concerns, but these pirates needing gold wouldn't sound farfetched because zinc's value right now is at its lowest in thirty years."

"Dwell some more on that. Thanks, you can go back to the speakers now."

"So this Weld is mining gold, using mercury and slave labor all provided by the oppression of Bruce's and Nex Fel's empire?"

Trip nodded, draining his drink. "From what I've seen yes."

Meredith's eyes seemed to dance with a slight anger, "So what?"

"With Karl Bruce out of the game and Nex Fel having been discovered, your end of the investigation as an agent is over. Therefore, you have no need to accompany us. I can arrange a shuttle to take you back to Misrata."

"You're joking right?" Meredith's expression changed to an all-out fury. "I've been spending nearly a year trying to track these bastards down. I had to pull many strings at the Rinzon Academy to be onboard and had many friends with me on the _Hunter_, some whom I've known for years. Don't think for even a moment that I will not be present to see this through. I am coming whether you like it or not. Do anything against me and the CRND will be coming after your ass no matter how good you try to hide. Make your next choice a wise one Mr. Commander of the motherfucking Blades."

For several long seconds their eyes locked, both of their faces inching closer to one another, neither one wanting to back down. Unfortunately, Trip was better trained at staring. He had seen her strength, resolve and now her passion to go through. Had he not been so attracted to her, he would have immediately asked her to join the Blades. Her towel suddenly began unwrapping itself from staying on her body for so long. Luckily for her, his reflexes had reached out, grabbing the end and wrapping it around her back.

"Just so you know." He whispered when their mouths were literally inches away. "I let you come with us. I can't assure your safety."

* * *

**The Finale has been changed to a future update, most likely the next one.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone. You give my writing purpose.**


	26. Finale I

**UNSC**_** Ballista **_**in Flint's atmosphere**

**August 18, 2558**

Currently, the _Ballista_ was heading straight into one of the worst storms that occurred in Flint's cold August months. Down in Misrata, the summers would get hot and stuffy, the perfect scenario for evening storms that lit up the night sky with yellow lightning and dousing the streets with rain and hail. Inside the vessel, much of her was now war weathered as she spent days battling nearly a half dozen pirate vessels. They knew that they were on the right track from the higher density of pirate controlled ships in the area. So far, all that challenged the stealth frigate had succumbed to its mighty firepower.

Inside, the operations bridge, Trip was strapped in the command seat, his face was stubble, having not shaved for a while. His normally dark eyes that brimmed with energy had now lost their will, but still maintained the sharpness that he was known for. Thanks to some extra strong black coffee, it was responsible for his astounding ability to keep from slouching in the command chair.

The main staff had the bridge, with Dan Tyler coming down with a sickness, so he had been filled in by Vaal, who was now at the helm. Aegis watched as he worked the ship through the unpredictability at even a high altitude. The displays were all a kaleidoscope of speed indicators, altimeters. However he had little time to focus on her movement, as he was currently dealing with the weapons and facing a large SDV corvette, the _Devoted Envoy_.

"She's on the move!" Riley called out, "Radar picks her up moving twenty by six!"

"Arm another guided torpedo and lock onto her main engines."

"Aye." Unfortunately, due to so much interference in the weather, achieving a shot with the MAC was much more difficult, so they had to resort to lockon weapons. Archer missiles had damaged the ship, but her powerful point defense weapons managed to keep _Ballista_ at bay, preventing her from closer range attacks and a swift victory. The clouds were thick and obscured visibility. Leah manned the communications and the radar. So far it had been clear, but in this weather, nobody was taking any chances.

* * *

Onboard the _Devoted Envoy_, Jor Fel balled his fist, slamming it on the command seat's arm. The metal spikes that lined his forearm plating made giant gaping holes inside the soft fabric seat.

"Get me a damage report now!"

"We're sustaining major structural damage on our starboard end, caused by missiles. The hostile contact is falling back." A frail skirmisher manning a station adjacent to him reported, watching as updates on the panels began scrolling at a rapid pace.

"Then we shall hit their tail while they run. Arm our long range turrets and fire immediately!"

"Hostile has launched a torpedo! Impact in thirty seconds!"

Jor cursed again now having fear flood his veins for the first time, the new human torpedoes were extremely difficult to avoid and were devastating to all targets. Any ways of defense were futile.

"We're going to have to accept this one." His crew's mouths opened as he knelt down. "The best we can do right now is that we have things under control on the ground and the _Anije_ will make it back with enough gold."

Every single one of his bridge crew had done more than a hundred raids with him on both civilian and military ships of both humans and Covenant alike. Despite their illegitimacy, they had done the same that their ancestors had done so long ago when they first plundered the seas of rival ships.

"So we fall. I only hope father makes it off in time with her gold."

The Blades' torpedo slammed into the rear engines, detonating the Envoy's propulsion in a massive blue fireball. The ship broke apart into four large fragments before fire consumed Jor's body and burned the remaining debris into ash.

* * *

"Commander, you're not going to believe what just happened!"

Aegis was suddenly upright in his seat, nearly knocking over the beef lasagna MRE on his seat's arm. The weather and unpredictable motions the ship was making had made meal creations impossible, so the crew resorted to military grade MREs.

"Leah, what's going on?" He had to nearly shout when the other bridge operators let out a shout of approval as a blue flash emanated from somewhere in the clouds. The _Envoy_ had been destroyed by their torpedo.

"I got a transmission from Vasili."

"Bullshit. When?"

"About three seconds ago."

"So then where is he?" Vaal swiveled in his seat, ready to punch in commands.

"Get to the north side of the mountain range, there the storm might clear up and he should be somewhere on the coast. I'm also picking up a large ship ascending." She scooted her chair to another set of panels, rapidly typing in commands. "It's the _Anije_."

"She won't make it far." Aegis countered, after seeing the surprise on her face. "Ignore her for now."

He smiled at the newfound hope inside him despite the _Anije_ having a clear path for a getaway; there was a chance that everyone could be brought back alive. However, getting a team in there was an absolute necessity, as the skirmisher pirates were not planning to give up their own slaves without a fight.

"Hang in there Vasili." He whispered, "Help is on the way." Unstrapping himself from the command chair as _Ballista_ eased her way out of the storm, he began his walk out. "Get Pyra to assemble two teams of everything we've got. All Spartans going head to the armor bay to get suited up."

His armor was now trashed, being the leg segments caught in the whirling saw blades back at Metsker, he now donned a newer pair of leg armor that was kept in the bay. They were contoured and smooth, colored green in accordance with the armor color that he was going to wear for the mission.

Sliding his fingers into gloves and browsing the armory, he crossed back to the hangars, where the two pelicans were being prepped for combat. Vaal and Pyra were already running preflight checks and examining the craft for a proper flight, a handful of ODSTs and a couple of Spartans were getting weapons checked making sure everyone was prepared, Meredith Adrian came up to him, decked out in a black combat suit and cradling an assault rifle.

"Alright listen up." His words caused the entire group to halt what they were doing to listen what he had to say. While he was mainly addressing his team, it would be broadcasted throughout the ship.

"Drew is everyone ready to go?"

One by one, first done by his second in charge, his senior bridge staff called in, each of them saying that they were prepared. Trip swapped channels to now the broadcast would be spoken by him.

"Attention all hands, this is the Commander. This is what's happening, from what we can tell. These pirates that we've been after for the past two weeks have their peak operation in these mountains. Now one of our own is down there right now, suffering with every other poor soul forced to work. I personally owe Vasili my life after he had saved my skin and I can confidently say that all of you can state likewise. His rescue is our top priority. Second, we have no idea how many slaves that the pirates have brought onto their lair. With them trying to bury their evidence of the atrocities that they committed, speed is the main focus. To those going out to combat with me, pick your targets, fingers on the trigger and keep it safe. With the storm getting even worse by the minute, I'm not willing to jeopardize the ship, no matter how badly the circumstances."

He reached across the table to pick up his Air Assault Helmet, complete with a bright red solar visor. "Now I won't be giving something like Cole at Psi Serpentis or Whitcomb in his NOVA, but we are going to be up against insurmountable odds. Everyone here knows their duty and what I and your crewmates expect of you. The contract that I accepted is far less of what hells we have gone through these past weeks. This is not a mission to line our pockets with credits, nor is it for the media to snap pictures of us for fame. Countless lives will be dependent on our engagement with these ruthless hostiles known as the remnants of Nex Fel's empire within the next twenty minutes. If any of you see that bastard, nobody should hesitate to put a bullet through his ugly head so that he can spend a nice eternity in hell."

Trip ended his broadcast, knowing that his crew's spirits would be the best they could to help out all those in distress. He slipped on his helmet and accepted his chosen armament from Vaal, an M90 shotgun and a pair of M6H handguns.

"Okay I lied." He grinned to the team as he slipped on the Air Assault helmet. "That last part sounded a lot like Whitcomb. Now let's get out there and kick some ass."

* * *

**Aww yeah! It's ass kickin time! Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! You give my writing purpose.**


	27. Finale II

**Unknown Flint Mountain Range**

**August 18, 2558**

In combat, every single member of the Blades excelled in one area or another. They had practiced enough times to anticipate one another's movement. Fear of never returning had always played on every Spartan, ODST and sangheili. For Trip, that fear is what he had fed on and the main reason he had even started his Blades contractor. The hangar's lights had been dimmed to match the gloomy outside while the two teams, the other one being led by Pyra checked each other's equipment. Music of sliding magazines and cocking of weapons gave even more adrenaline to his ears.

He found someone gazing at him from the other pelican and looked over, catching Meredith Adrian looking at him. She was decked out in a full marine battle armor. She had begrudgingly agreed to man the weapons station on his pelican. He knew that if he denied her the chance to go with the assault team, there was no way she would back down, even if he was a Spartan. She had to be a part of this as survivor's guilt on the _Knowledge Hunter_. Unless she did some sort of retribution, the assault by the pirates would haunt her for the remainder of her life. Trip had agreed to let her have some action before this was finished once and for all.

"_Ballista_ in position." Leah Roush reported on his com, "Ril is pumping the camera feed on what's going on down there."

Trip held on to the top of the pelican as it took off with his compliment of himself, Vaal, Rak and Laura, whom tha tlatter two would be spotting and sniping. The hatch's plastasteel hatch shut and outside the second dropship followed their descent.

Riley's feed played in a deployed UAV that was fed to a corner of his helmet's HUD. He had done a remarkable job keeping the drone steady as controlling the shaking caused by the storm above.

Rain was beginning to fall as the coastal camp was alive with crisscrossing beams of Covenant and human weaponry. Much of the yellow muzzle flashes came from the head, while the blue, green and purple colors were being fired by the party further up, towards the back.

"Who the hell are they shooting at?"

To the left of the video, which Luke angled the drone to get a better view of, there were a series of landing pads, each of them having a dozen humans covered in rags hauling up containers. The first phantoms done lifted off and accelerated skyward while the armed skirmishers kept watch over them. That had been the area where Weld's men were pushing for, however there were nearly six kig-yar for every mercenary present in the fighting, they were completely outnumbered. Further back up the camp, he saw many of similarly dressed humans scrambling for whatever safety they could find. It was impossible to find Vasili in that mess, but he'd be leaving that part to Drew and Leah. The pelicans moved to the left side as well, making sure that hardly anybody spotted them. The ramps were deployed and Aegis' team dropped a solid six feet down, readying their weapons. The second pelican eased a little further behind a house sized piece of rubble to deploy Pyra's team. Aegis met the CIO armored Spartan behind another cement block that was tall enough to cover both of them when they stood at their full height. Gunfire rippled over the two main belligerent sides as neither one managed to get an edge of the other.

"So what's your analysis?"

The larger Spartan peered over, firing his battle rifle at an unseen target. He must have had Promethean Vision, "I'd say we just dropped into a small war here. My bet's that both Fel and Weld had double crossed each other over the slaves and now their stalemate troops are getting nowhere."

"Where's the heaviest fighting?"

"Near the dropships where they seem to be evacuating their precious cargo."

"Get the drone on that area, if Vasili's in fighting shape, that's where he'll be."

"Alright, get the pilots to come and join us."

Meredith had her hands squeezed on the firing button of the pelican's 70mm autocannon, mincing a group of skirmishers when she heard something behind her. Turning around with her hand on her sidearm she came face to face with Hamed, the ODST piloting the ship.

"Can I ask you a question ma'am?"

"Only if you swear to never call me ma'am again and want your fingers down your throat."

"Sorry." He depolarized his visor in a sheepish grin. "A nasty habit."

"Okay, so what do you need?"

"Know how to fly and use one of these?"

Meredith laughed, "I work for the CNRD's agency area, I'm all about piloting, with ratings in multiengine, commercial transport up to your _Ballista_ ship."

"Good. Take over."

"Wait!" She called out after the Qatari shock trooper was halfway out with his MA5C. "What are you doing?"

"Commander's found something that might be more than just slaves. Wheeler in the other dropship and I are going to secure it."

Without another word, he leaped out of the bay, landing in a roll and joining another black armored ODST in firing on a group of skirmishers that were bloodthirsty on killing their newest target.

* * *

Vasili Suvorov remained hidden, quietly observing the reaction from both parties upon _Ballista_'s debut. From her bays he had seen their pelicans exit and head towards the landing zone where Fel was loading up his gold. Just as he predicted, the insurrectionist commandos ignored the new ship. They had made quite a hole in the skirmisher pirates' ranks. Only a few kig-yar took potshots at the massive _Ballista_, whose front was slightly visible through the low hanging fog. The projectiles were easily deflected off of her advanced shielding.

In the center was heavy fighting, most of the skirmishers had overrun that area and used it as a buffer to prevent the innies from getting to the phantoms. Instantly the _Ballista_ came alive as her frontal miniguns spooled up, spraying yellow flames and hundreds of rounds every second shredded the flesh of anyone caught in the way. The guns stopped seconds later, revealing a good sized area of wet ground from the blood of those killed.

The horde of kig-yar pirates continued to pound at the dwindling PMCs and they knew it. Now for them it wasn't about survival anymore, all that mattered was dying with honor.

Something caught his eye among the fleeing workers. He had ordered Vitaly to get as many people to safety as possible so that there wouldn't be any unnecessary casualties. The easily identifiable cloak swirled in the wind as Nex Fel rushed towards the landing areas. It was probably his priority to escape and have his swarming numbers annihilate both the Blades and Weld's PMCs. He saw no sign of anyone that resembled Weld and it was clear that he wasn't with his men. Vasili wondered if Nex had already murdered him.

It was a huge mistake to pursue the pirate lord, but Vasili's hatred and utter grudge against the being that was responsible for nearly a week of his suffering and the endless toil of his fellow workers spurred him into action. The entire ordeal would likely scar him for life, but at least killing the sadistic warlord would help bring reprise to his soul again. Racing across the side, dodging buildings and low objects that might have tripped him, he raced after Fel. The skirmisher was amazingly fast in his bulky armor, zigzagging through the buildings shouting orders to more armed men that were headed to the fight. Vasili didn't have much ammo left in his carbine and a missed shot would cause him to get to a ride even faster.

There was a wall separating the pads from Vasili. Fel bounded past three startled guards who hastily readied their weapons and leaped clear over the fence. He waited until the guards relaxed again in two seconds before emerging from his hiding point on the corner of an adjacent building. Firing three shots, he killed two of them before the third one had his senses and starting drawing a bead. Vasili was upon him, ramming the pirate into the wall. Grabbing the feathers, he peeled him off, pressing his heel into the neck and twisting it.

The metal wall was nearly eight feet in height and Vasili barely had the strength to even start his way up. The weapon on his back felt like it weighed twice as much, but he had made it. He let himself fall over the side, making sure to exhale to prevent himself from winding.

Satisfied that nobody guessed his intentions, he raised the weapon again and took off after Nex Fel across the phantom landing pads.

* * *

Using one hand to steady himself on the rubble, Hamed fired a wild stream of bullets to keep the skirmishers suppressed hiding behind another pile of debris. Wheeler tossed a grenade just short in front. It exploded, raining shrapnel down on those hiding behind. One pirate was misfortunate enough to have the explosive blow his leg off. The ODSTs put him out from a burst of rounds.

Hamed turned around to Meredith, who was hovering the pelican up above. He waved and motioned two fingers to where his ear was. She understood and opened up their channel.

"Move, get suppression fire on the main warzone!"

"I'm not leaving you behind." She yelled back, even though the cabin was much quieter than the rapid tapping of gunshots.

"Just move! We need those phantoms to chase something so that Ril can hose em with the minigun!"

Meredith now understood and gunned the throttle, letting out staccato bursts over the tops of the phantom's hull. It wasn't long before the large purple craft accepted her challenge and began ascending, some of them already loaded with boxes. She sped out in the clear area, making sure that the _Ballista_'s Gatling gun pivoted to the craft pursuing her. Swerving to the right, she dodged a volley of the explosive shots from the phantom's main cannon. Had she not maneuvered the pelican a second later, the bolts would have destroyed the engine and causing the ship to spiral out of control.

The gatling gun whined as it tracked the multiple phantoms, squirting out a quick burst at each target. All of the bullets hit their mark, tearing through the Covenant metal and crippling all of the pursuing craft's engines. The phantoms dove into the ground in a rush, as if eager to accept their fate.

"Hamed, this is Drew. Come in."

"We're here." He had replied in only a whisper.

"Why so quiet?"

"We're on top of one of the shipping boxes. The pirates had just come aboard."

"Do they have any idea that you're there." Adrian leaned around the cockpit, trying to find where the two ODSTs had hid themselves.

"Commander thinks there's some booty aboard, not the kind the model's packing."

Aegis pulled the trigger on his shotgun again. The weapon kicked back as it dispensed its last shell into yet another skirmisher pirate. He had outfitted it with incendiary ammo so that if the pellets didn't kill, the fire certainly did.

"Drew, get Riley to hose that last docked phantom with the gatling?"

"What? Why?"

"There are more than a thousand slaves in this camp and the more we prolong this battle, the more of them will be getting killed. Those PMCs look like they can hold out for another couple hours and I'm betting that that last dropship is their only way out."

"I'm out." He said to his teammates not too far away, once his shotgun ejected its last shell into a nearby pirate. Looking around, he saw another skirmisher approaching him. Without a second thought, he tossed the empty weapon at his opponent's head. The pirate flinched, giving Trip enough time to draw his twin magnums and put two rounds into his head.

"Commander, I found Vasili!" Leah's high pitched voice cut through the sounds of battle, "He's heading to the single phantom as well."

"I'm on it." With a simple exchange from Pyra, both knew what they had to do. Aegis took off in a run towards the pads while Pyra gained command of the ground team.

Trip sprinted through a grenade explosion letting his shields take the blast, narrowly dodging another thrown grenade as he continued weaving through the buildings and mining equipment. The entire time he never took his eye off of the phantom landing zone.

* * *

**I'm very happy to say that the story is now completely written! Just before posting this I had finished the final chapter!**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.**


	28. Finale III

**Unknown Flint Mountain Range**

**August 18, 2558**

Conan Pyra saw the _Ballista_ rain down death from her minigun on her side. In response, the pirates all began retreating, across the camp towards the area where the remaining phantom was docked. The scene of so many grey armored beings sprinting across the top reminded him of fleeing rats.

He had tossed a grenade, blowing two of the armored pirates to hell when suddenly to his left, what he thought of a corpse suddenly animated to life. The skirmisher kicked his BR85 rifle out of his grip and tried to stab a wicked purple knife into his chest. With swift movements only capable of a Spartan, he had blocked the fatal thrust, twisting the arm to give himself enough time to place his sidearm's barrel squarely into the helmet's center. Trip's shotgun lay ahead, down in the dirt on top of another skirmisher, whose skull had caved in when he had thrown the empty weapon.

"It seems that the PMCs are still holding out very hard." Aegis said over the open broadcast channel that the team shared, "Now that the lines have thinned out a little, Drew give them a chance to surrender with a promise of a ride out of here."

"And if they don't agree?" Drew asked, partially concerned.

"Then tell Riley that he only needs to hold the trigger for half a second."

* * *

Vasili knew that he was never going to be able to catch Nex Fel. Hunger now started to seriously chip away at his energy and he now found himself nearly gasping for air in a situation where he normally would be hardly panting. Looking back, he saw the worst of the battle behind him. Flashes of multicolored lights zigzagged across the air as the newly arrived Blades began hammering both parties. All in the midst of the chaos, he spotted a figure sprinting in his direction. There was no mistake in the speed and fashion that it was Aegis.

Nex had been heading closer to his phantom when Vasili broke off his chase and instead headed towards the back side of the loading bays. Every time he had to jump over an obstacle, the carbine slammed against his open skin, reminiscent of getting punched. The shock rattled his bones when he ran further, barely out of getting burns when a nearby drum of plasma exploded.

Nex was about to activate the phantom's gravity lift when he suddenly saw more plasma drums seem to rain from above. Vasili had climbed the overwatch tower with every ounce of strength he could muster and pushed the volatile material down onto the craft. The pirate lord looked straight into his own eyes when Suvorov's gave a smug sense of superiority. He quickly aimed at the closest one to the skirmisher and fired the two of the last three shots in the gun.

Plasma spewed everywhere as it ignited in a massive fireball that plumed nearly a hundred feet into the air. Overhead, the netting that previously was used to cover the entire encampment began dissolving, as the flammable material was eaten by the hot plasma. The phantom was among the wreckage, being licked at by the flames.

Nex Fel stirred from his spot in the rubble, looking in horror as his last chance of escape gone. With a look of pure rage, he regarded Vasili for the first time. He must have figured that maybe another ride was down back on the other side of the camp. The Spartan however was quicker, snapping the carbine's sights up and firing the last bullet.

A spray of blood came from Nex's torso, causing him to stumble and nearly fall. Although wounded, Nex was abnormally large for his species and having spent years of being in combat, he was able to tolerate a sizeable amount of punishment. Vasili charged in a shoulder barge, crashing into the skirmisher and sending them tumbling in the sand. Fel let out a sharp screech from getting the fine particles in his eyes while Suvorov wordlessly wiped away anything that was in his face.

"You're going to pay for that." He snarled, goading Vasili to hit him again. His stance opened up as he spread his hands in defense for what the Spartan had next.

"I wouldn't bank on it." Vasili's accent somewhat stunned Fel and he took that to his full advantage. He whipped the stock of the carbine at Fel's head that avoided it just in time, but gave Vasili the window to throw a carefully planned punch in the center of Fel's armor. His fist began throbbing as pain finally was registered in his mind, but the center chestpiece of the suit had broken.

Fel immediately unsheathed some concealed blades in his forearm suit and swung with vicious force, had Vasili not avoided in time, the sharp blow would have taken his head off. He was unable to stop Fel from driving the blade into his left arm, which a feather of body fluids exploded from. Vasili grunted in pain, watching as the blood began trickling down his hand when he started going down, reaching out at the last second, he snatched Fel's leg, sweeping the kig-yar and pulling him down with him. The feeling on falling down a pit of sorts slightly dawned on him. To his horror, he was in an empty pit for mercury. He had fallen down a smooth wall that was in a vat for storage of one of the most savage poisons known to mankind.

He must have known what he had planned as both the pirate lord and Spartan began their painful climb out. The cut in his arm hampered any progress that Vasili had made to escape, but fortunately for him, Nex Fel hadn't had much success either.

The skirmisher saw Vasili reaching for the nearest bar when he jumped over, using his teeth to try and bite his leg. Vasili let out a cry of pain, rapidly pounding his foot on the wall to dislodge them. Suddenly he found himself dipping down again; he had just unknowingly twisted the valve for the mercury flow. The bottom started to pool of a silvery liquid when Vasili had hauled himself out. Right behind him was Fel, trying to use his impressive leg strength to escape. It wasn't enough however, every time he fell back; he splashed inside the growing puddle. Vasili had twisted the valve some more when Fel managed to use his sharp claws to finally get a grip on the side. He was on him instantly, slugging his jaws with his good fist, watching as two razor teeth exploded out of his mouth along with a saliva and purple blood. With an outraged cry, Vasili wrapped the sling of his carbine that lay nearby around Fel's neck, giving him some more nasty blows before throwing the empty weapon back into the deep pool.

The weapon, although empty weighed fifteen pounds and that combined with Fel's weakened body were enough to keep him on the bottom. Vasili watched without expression as the notorious pirate leader began going into convulsions, thrashing as he fought a losing battle against the dense weight of the carbine. Finally after thirty seconds, he had disappeared into the drink and when it reached a minute, the unforgiving mercury reservoir was now still, as if nobody had ever thrown in a body to begin with.

"That's now on my top ten ways of avoiding death."

Vasili spun around, half collapsing into the arms of Aegis. "Where the hell were you guys?! For a second, I thought I had to take all these cronies all by myself!"

"And deny us a portion of the glory? Those skirmishers were either killed or fled for good." Although he couldn't see past the Solar colored visor of Trip's Air Assault helmet, he knew he was grinning. "Nex Fel?"

"Wanted me to take him for swimming lessons." He nodded at the full tub of mercury.

"Any idea where Weld could be?"

"No idea."

"That saves us the trouble."

"Sorry?"

Trip allowed Vasili to slip an arm around him as they exited the processing area out to the landing pad. A flare was ignited and immediately Drew began ordering a pelican ready for retrieval.

"As I was saying before, unless all this gold is examined and stamped by an official mint, it's completely devoid of any value. Nobody would touch it. So before Weld or whoever could even put this genocidal scheme together, he must have already been in contact with someone willing to buy it all from him. Someone who obviously was his partner in crime."

"I don't have any clue who it might be."

"Relax my friend." Trip assured him as the pelican descended with Sofia in her armor and another medic. "We'll find the greedy bastard."

"Beach secure Commander!" Conan Pyra told him over the radio, "The PMCs agreed to surrender for extraction."

"Time for us to leave before that storm hits." Trip looked skyward as the _Ballista_ moved closer to the camp. All around them, hundreds of workers that had hid amongst the fighting had now materialized out of wherever they had been hiding. "All of us."

* * *

None of the slaves looked back at the camp as the Flint government forces had arrived for extraction. Nearly a hundred dropships were shuttling them to the nearby towns for treating. The process was chaotic, as some slaves were milling about. Although slow, it made progress as the rescue crews processed all slaves into sustainable health conditions, feeding actual food, water and plenty of rest. They had set up another camp right outside the prison one and the line of workers seemed to solidify from the densely packed crowd.

In the distance above, Trip watched for a few more seconds when two more dropships carried off their loads of slaves before heading back. He crossed into the hangar where everyone awaited his arrival, the two pelicans were now settling down with an enormous crimson colored container in between them. He scanned the crowd, noting that Adrian was absent. Francois had appeared out of nowhere beside him, carrying bottles of champagne and enough crystal flutes for everybody.

There was a popping sound as Hamed and Wheeler decided to sprinkle the fizzy bottles over everyone.

"These two decided to look at their Christmas present early." Aegis shouted over the cheering. "However, I guess everyone should know by now."

He grasped one side door of the container, using his armor's enhanced strength to pull back. The inside glow illuminated the entire hangar in a brilliant yellow sheen.

Aegis lifted one of the newly formed gold bars over his head, all while the Blades' entire crew let out their loudest victory cry yet.

* * *

**I'm so glad! The story is finally finished! Still, there are many unanswered questions going through your head; What about Weld? What about the gold? Why is Meredith absent at the victory party?**

**Epilogue will tell what all happens in the end.**


	29. Epilogue

**UNSC Ballista**

**New Alexandria, Reach**

**August 24, 2558**

Trip Aegis settled into his comfort chair in his cabin, much to his delight. Sipping at the drink that he had bought at Fort Liberty's spaceport, he smiled, feeling the taste coming back to him. It was the first time in nearly three weeks when he could finally relax.

When the _Ballista_ left Flint, the _Anije_ was true to his word, only a little bit further down her next voyage when she easily caught up, nearly out the place where some of the slaves onboard called the Beach of Death. They passed her stern a couple of miles away before locking on to her engines and sending the monstrous vessel to her grave on the mountain side after the emptying of two torpedoes.

Once she was out of the equation, Aegis contacted the Misrata rescue teams. He had jumped through a dozen points of origin during his broadcast, informing the operator that there was a significant amount of stranded souls at the given location of the camp. After the operator didn't seem quite concerned about the rescue, even after he explained about all the refugees from Victoria or wherever, he said there was a stored fortune of illegally mined gold, which seemed to get more of a favorable reaction.

_Ballista_ had then journeyed back to one of Misrata's repair station where they turned Weld's mercenaries over to the authorities and conducted some repairs to both the ship and crew.

Aegis phoned Adamant about their past caper, saying that now some intel might be able to be scavenged on the higher tiers of the Covenant criminal empires. He also informed Koyara, his original client about the halt of Fel's empire, saying that the malevolent threat was now over and gave instructions for their final payment, which was conducted twelve hours later. He held back on telling him about the shipment of gold, which the Blades kept the largest container of as a bonus.

It was only a day later when he had gotten a call from Adamant who was informed by the first rescue team that had arrived on site. Adamant gave Aegis some intresting information about one of the teams had found a man hiding inside the control room when the main camp was raided. He gave his name as Ryan Weld. Weld had barricaded himself inside the top floor with a plasma rifle and enough food and water to survive for a month. He was now staying at a hotel in downtown Misrata.

Although he wanted to finish the business himself, Trip thought that Vasili would need it more to rest his troubled heart. Taking his best friend Conan Pyra, they had headed back to Flint as the _Ballista_ resumed her voyage to Reach for her repairs. They arrived in New Alexandria's spaceport two days later with the name of Emile Renaud.

"So what happened?" Trip asked as they piled into the pelican that he had flown to pick them up.

"Oh it was simple really." Conan grinned like a little kid about to get his favorite toy. "When we broke into his room all decked out in our MJOLNIR armor, he swore that the UNSC had finally come for him. We gave the bastard assurance that we wouldn't if he told us everything we wanted to know. It was funny cause he didn't even know that Vasili was a prisoner not two days ago."

"There wasn't enough room to house all the smuggled in what available room they had outside Misrata, so they kept the slaves in the warehouses with supplies until they figured out what to do with them." Vasili was now smiling, obviously done his work well. "After Weld gave me his name, Conan and I took him to one of the warehouses where the slaves were staying at. We explained to them who Weld was and told them that we was responsible along with Fel for running the mines and then left saying that he was all theirs."

"By the time we were at the door, his screaming had stopped." Pyra added for the last part.

After they explained what Renaud fit into the scheme, Trip and Vaal Talam took a trip to Verona Beach to arrange a "meeting" with him. That had gone just as he had expected.

Renaud now held the record of being the fastest to break down in front of the Blades. It was obvious he had never seen an energy sword before. Vaal had held the white hot blade a mere four inches from Renaud's throat as the latter agreed to buy back all the containers that Aegis had shipped with him to New Corsica. Half of the trusts had gone to all the miners and the rest to the community. He then would sell his bank and then retire to the slums of Caineopolis on Gilgamesh, where he would give the rest of his life to charity.

Trip was satisfied with that and Vaal agreed not to slice the greedy bastard's head off.

There was a soft knock on his door that had roused him out of his thoughts. He had nothing to hide and was aware of nearly the entire crew on leave to Reach save for Drew and a couple of his technicians maintaining some last minute fixes. Striding over to the side, he unlocked the door and swung it open.

"Hi Captain! Remember me?" Meredith Adrian's hair was in a style that he subconsciously regarded as one of the most attractive on women. Her eyes flickered with the glow of the new fireplace that he had installed before taking on the mission. She wore a jacket over a casual loose deep purple blouse with the top low enough to catch his attention. Her lips had been brushed with pink gloss in a bright smile and he couldn't determine what emanated from it, but it was a very sweet scent.

"I thought I would never see you again." Aegis finally managed to get out, when the _Ballista_ had docked for her repairs; she had left without even a goodbye.

"Aren't you going to let me in?"

"Of course." He shut the door, pouring a pair of shots from his bottle, careful to sit opposite her in his leather chairs.

"You know, I had seen you as the loyal captain with all of your shipmates with their utmost loyalty. I concurred that you had a girl in every possible port and convinced myself that I didn't want to be another bother. I had decided to go home and spare myself a broken heart for falling for the wrong man."

Aegis said nothing in response, but something shifted in the back of his soul. Meredith didn't know what, but it was something that he may have wanted to stay buried.

"Drew had called me when I was nearly about to leave back home. He had said that since my absence, you've just been even more distant and an introvert than ever before. He had the thought that you liked me and I liked you, so I just happened to come back with my hopes all up. My previous assumptions were dismissed when he scoffed at you having a girl in every port. In fact, the entire time he's known you; there wasn't once where he was aware that you've been on a date."

Trip opened his mouth to talk, but in an instant, Meredith placed one of her soft, gentle hands on his lips. She shifted a little bit, now a little on his side.

"Drew also said that you were widowed, well not even wedded yet. He said that your fiancée was killed by a drunk driver. According to him, you only have one picture of her on your personal datapad and rarely discuss about it save for one night years ago. Just remember Trip," She shrugged out of her jacket, draping it over the chair. Aegis could now see that her dress was strapless. "Sam thing what you told me back on Flint. You only get the bigger reward if you take the bigger risk."

"Drew is the only one who knew that I was ever going to be married." Trip softly said, "Yes, she was killed in a car by a drunk driver, but I never told him that she was the drunk. It was six years ago, sometime before I started the Strike Blades. I had a dream of her, myself retired from ONI, two or three kids and we'd have a suburban house in somewhere quiet where the weather and people were just perfect. She had been to rehab multiple times and I only knew it once by the time I was engaged." He rose from his chair and retrieved his datapad from his desk. Unlocking the screen it showed the background picture. Meredith peered onto the small handheld device.

There was a younger Trip Aegis in his UNSC uniform with three other similarly dressed men in Marine outfits. To his left, was a woman that he had his arm around. She could have been the same age as him or slightly younger, but anyone who had a look at the couple's only picture already knew that they were destined to marry. She wore a blue dress that was complimentary to her blue eyes and golden blonde hair. He had proposed to her on dinner that night, which she had accepted to, in tears. They would only be together before nine months, when she was taken from him just weeks before Reach had fallen.

"She's beautiful." Meredith whispered.

Trip nodded, "I guess it never really stuck with her. I still recall the night when I was awakened by a knock at four in the morning. She had gone with her friends somewhere, no doubt to the bar. When I saw the police outside my apartment door, I knew what had happened."

"I'm sorry." She placed a hand on the back of his head. "You still carry a torch."

"And the anger."

"You can't keep blaming yourself. Listen Trip, I've only got a week's leave from the CNRD and Drew says that you'll be onto your next job soon, within the next couple of days. I'm not saying that you should drop everything you're doing and marry me. Hell, I'm not even asking for you to love me. What I'm asking you to do is for you to stop taking the blame of everything bad and getting down because you believe that it's your fault. Start letting yourself enjoy some of the good."

"You're not leaving until I start right?"

"When was the last time you ever had an intimate moment with a woman?"

The question sent a stirring jolt through him. He couldn't bring himself to respond and had his hands on the back of her head, entwined in her hair before finally whispering. "I don't know."

"Don't you think it's about time?" She asked, before putting her lips to his.

Aegis used his arms to easily lift her from their seat, all while deepening the kiss that they were sharing. He crossed the room until they reached his large king sized bed. His heart was beating quickly when he collapsed into the mattress with Meredith on top of him.

"It was never about time." He smiled against her soft skin. "It was waiting for the right person. I do have to warn you, it's been quite a while."

She gave a lustful laugh as she guided his hands to her dress at the top. "It'll be okay."

* * *

**Now it is time to close the cover to the second chapter in the Blades Trilogy. It's been quite an amazing time writing to all of you. **

**I honestly have no idea what I will be doing next. Suggestions will be appreciated for a possible new series or maybe a continuation of the Blades' stories.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose. Don't forget that.**


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